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POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW: 2015 VOL 13, 239–316
Book Reviews
Political Theory
An Introduction to Property Theory by Gregory
S. Alexander and Eduardo M. Peñalver. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 246pp.,
£18.99, ISBN 9780521130608
Property Theory is the work of two distinguished law
professors at Cornell University. Its intention is to
introduce undergraduate students in Law to the key
theoretical approaches that underlie the sorts of dis-
putes and adjudications that eventually manifest them-
selves in everyday legal disputes. It is a book of two
halves. Having essayed what property is and what a
property theory is in the Introduction, in Part I the
authors outline five sorts of property theory: utilitarian,
Lockean/libertarian, Hegelian, Kantian and Aristotelian
(the latter being grounded in the principle of securing
human flourishing). In Part II, the authors survey four
key issue areas in property disputes: government redis-
tribution, the right to exclude, eminent domain, and
‘takings’ and intellectual property rights. In each case,
they survey the identified field through the several
property lenses established in Part I.
Overall, this is a really useful resource for students
(and others) interested in the politics of property.
Almost all the thinkers discussed here, from Aristotle to
Richard Epstein, appear ubiquitously in contemporary
political discussions of the theory of property. Indeed,
it is one of those areas where law and politics overlap
substantially (which is perhaps why so much of the
best contemporary political writing on property is
undertaken by those working in American law
schools). Throughout, the authors offer concise but
thoughtful sketches of the various positions they iden-
tify. They give a little more space to utilitarianism –
reflecting its importance in most discussions – and a
little priority to Aristotelian accounts of human flour-
ishing (which they identify as their preferred approach)
– but generally the approach is well-balanced and fairly
comprehensive.
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Overall, Part I probably works better than Part II.
Although the second half is in some sense devoted to
applications, it does get caught somewhere between the
generalities of Part I and the specific case-by-case
approach that such a rubric might seem to require.The
treatment of intellectual property, for example, is just
too truncated to really do the work required of it. But,
as a brief yet sophisticated and clear introduction to the
most crucial issues at stake in diverse contemporary
approaches to property thinking, this is an excellent
and fairly unique resource.
Chris Pierson
(University of Nottingham)
The Sovereignty of Law: Freedom, Constitution
and Common Law by T. R. S. Allan. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013. 361pp., £50.00, ISBN
978 0 19 968506 6
The origin of states as political creatures has always
relied on certain rules and conducts that guarantee
their survival. These rules and conducts contain prin-
ciples such as ‘sovereignty’ and constitutional elements
that coexist in the shadows of political organs and
decision making. It is difficult for states to function
outside the realm of constitutionalism without resort-
ing to a full political theory of law, and in The Sovereignty
of Law: Freedom, Constitution and Common Law, Trevor
Allan has challenged the complex situation of consti-
tutionalism against the backdrop of ‘political values’ (p.
54). He maps out an argument where ‘the doctrine of
parliamentary sovereignty is perfectly consistent with
the rule of law because it does not threaten the integ-
rity of basic constitutional values’ (p. 174).
Allan’s work is a complex collection of arguments,
yet it is beautifully written in an eight-chapter mono-
graph with an appendix that is a sort of rebuttal clari-
fying earlier arguments. The complexity of the work is
a reflection of the controversies that befall common law
240
constitutionalism in the United Kingdom – the
country with no written constitution in which political
organs such as parliament must operate, yet with regard
for the rule of law because of how closely ‘legal and
political theory’ (p. 335) are intertwined.
It is in this spirit that Allan’s arguments are captured
about how two quintessential elements of a civil society
function: the judicial and political processes. These
arguments are sliced up in an intellectually appealing
manner for all actors on either side, political or judicial,
to cast aside any scepticism they may have. As Allan
explains, ‘there is a delicate balance to be attained
between democratic decision-making by an elected
legislature, or its executive agents, on the one hand, and
enforcement of the rule of law in defence of funda-
mental rights, on the other’ (p. 284). Essentially, it is this
very delicate mix of the common law and parliamen-
tary sovereignty and how to balance it for which Allan
is determined to make the case.
Allan’s intricate manoeuvring of the controversies
ensures that abstract constitutional theories by political
operatives are not in themselves easily dismissed.
However, at the same time, judicial reviews of parlia-
mentary constitutionalism also ensure that citizens can
enjoy maximum freedom in a free and just society. In a
sense, Allan’s attempts are a deliberately involuted way
of sowing more seeds for theoretical fertilisation
beyond the mere political and judicial actors of British
constitutionalism.
P. Sean Morris
(University of Helsinki)
Cosmopolitanism versus Non-Cosmopolitanism:
Critiques, Defenses, Reconceptualizations by
Gillian Brock (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2013. 331pp., £55.00, ISBN 9780199678426
Beginning with Charles Beitz’s groundbreaking work
in the 1970s, cosmopolitans have argued for the exten-
sion of social justice beyond the boundaries of the state,
while statists generally reject this extension. The essays
collected in this book, accordingly, could be read
as attempts to reconsider and revitalise the
cosmopolitanism-statism distinction, while at the same
time moving beyond it.
Michael Blake sets the stage by arguing that since
moral cosmopolitanism (i.e. the moral equality of
persons) is widely accepted ‘cosmopolitanism’ is no
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longer a theoretically distinctive term. His position is
supported by the contributions of Samuel Freeman,
Andrea Sangiovanni, David Reidy and, to some extent,
Laura Valentini, who each argue that moral cosmopoli-
tanism does not support the extension model, while at
the same time rejecting the statist argument and pro-
posing alternative principles of international justice. Lea
Ypi provides a provocative counter-argument accord-
ing to which cosmopolitan theory needs to be
radicalised rather than abandoned, endorsing the rejec-
tion of compatriot favouritism and the establishment of
a global political authority. Her position receives
support from Darrel Moellendorf, Simon Keller and
Fabian Schuppert, who each challenge the view that
cosmopolitanism is inconsistent with civic virtue or
collective self-determination, as well as by Miriam
Ronzoni’s argument that political and institutional cos-
mopolitanism do not require the endorsement of moral
cosmopolitanism. Richard Miller and Thomas Pogge,
both venerable veterans of this debate, conclude by
addressing the different positions and offer possible
paths for future research.
Overall, this is a well-assembled and useful collec-
tion. However, some opportunities seemed to me to
have been missed. While all of the contributions are of
a very high standard, not all of them will be equally
illuminating to readers familiar with the debate as some
are little more than restatements of familiar positions
that can be found elsewhere. This is not necessarily a
flaw, of course – it is only in comparison to the con-
tributions that make an attempt to tackle the wider
discussion over the ‘state of the art’ of cosmopolitan
theory that the missed potential of this scholarly dis-
cussion is highlighted. Additionally, several pairs of
essays could be read as stating contrasting positions on
specific points (most clearly Saladin Meckled-Garcia
and Elizabeth Ashford on human rights). Gillian
Brock’s introduction helpfully points to these recurring
themes and questions and aligns the different contri-
butions according to them, but it might have been
helpful to organise the book around such themes to
illustrate the theoretical landscape better. These,
however, are minor criticisms, and should not diminish
the book’s value as a guide to these intricate and
fascinating debates.
Lior Erez
(University College London)
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
Hegel and Global Justice by Andrew Buchwalter
(ed.). Dordrecht: Springer, 2012. 241pp., £90.00,
ISBN 978 9048189953
In this edited volume, prominent Hegelian scholars
attempt to challenge conventionally held assumptions
about Hegel, particularly with regard to the subject of
global justice. They show how Hegel not only
addressed this subject, but also how he had a profound
understanding of its implications.The book’s contribu-
tors refute the assumption that Hegel’s views were
entirely Western-centric. They demonstrate that Hegel
was concerned with issues such as global socio-
economic justice, international law, universal human
rights and a global ethical culture. They also explore
Hegel’s relationship with many other philosophers
concerned with global justice, including Thomas
Hobbes, Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, Jacques
Derrida, Jürgen Habermas and Martha Nussbaum.
Although most articles in this volume differ in their
interpretation of Hegel and the concept of ‘global
justice’, they approach their examinations through a
common lens: dialectics. In particular, the authors
address Hegel’s views on global justice through his
theory of recognition.This theory examines social rela-
tions through the concept of ‘shared identity’. All of the
contributors strive to relate Hegel’s work to the
modern world and multinational entities like the Euro-
pean Union, although they also recognise areas in
which Hegel’s vision was limited because of the times
in which he lived.
The book begins with Andrew Buchwalter’s framing
introduction that places the contributions in the wider
context of the Hegelian dialectic and global justice.
Steven Hicks addresses Hegel’s views on cosmopolitan-
ism and the challenges of globalisation, while Robert
Fine compares and contrasts Hegel’s views on cosmo-
politanism with those of Kant. Thom Brooks positions
Hegel as a Hobbesian political realist. Maria Kowalski
compares Hegel with Rawls, discussing both scholars’
views on cultural diversity and universal rights. Peter
Stillman discusses many of the same themes as Kowalski
and the other scholars, coming to the conclusion that
cosmopolitanism, while it may create interstate
cooperation, does not lead to true consensual unity.
Lydia Moland focuses on themes in Hegel that relate to
global poverty, whereas Clark Butler discusses problems
created by the global market system. Paul Cobben gives
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Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
241
a Hegelian perspective on the EU. Gary Browning
discusses global citizenship, and Andrew Buchwalter
further addresses recognition theory.
By using Hegelian dialectic, and specifically his rec-
ognition theory, the scholars in this book make impor-
tant contributions to the concept of ‘global justice’.
They not only bring a deeper perspective to Hegel’s
discourse, they also advance the entire conversation on
global justice.
Mehmet Karabela
(Queen’s University, Canada)
Habermas and Religion by Craig Calhoun,
Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen
(eds). Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013. 477pp., £19.99,
ISBN 9780745653273
Readers of Jürgen Habermas have been by turns
puzzled and infuriated by his recent interest in the role
of religion in the public sphere. This collection will
prove to be a valuable tool in helping scholars to
understand just what is at stake in Habermas’ treatment
of religion, although it will not succeed in answering
every critic. The edited volume consists of fourteen
chapters and a lengthy reply from Habermas himself.
The contributions are divided into four sections,
dealing with rationalisation (the place of Habermas’
writings in relation to theories of secularisation and
‘political theology’); the critique of reason (treating the
continuity of Habermas’ religious writing with his
earlier projects); world society and democracy (bring-
ing Habermas on religion into conversation with
current debates in political theory); and a section of less
cohesive pieces (on memory, solidarity and an odd
essay from the theologian John Milbank).
The book’s first role will be as an aid to future
scholarship. Alongside a general introduction, it pro-
vides an appendix and bibliography that will prove
invaluable for any reader wondering where to start in
on the forbidding collection of essays, interviews and
books that constitute Habermas’ statements on religion.
Unfortunately, the authors and editors of the volume
have had access to one crucial text that will be unavail-
able to the reader: drafts of several chapters of the
lengthy monograph tentatively titled An Essay on Faith
and Knowledge, where Habermas apparently expands
and explains several crucial pieces of his theory, par-
ticularly how the development of religious ritual fits
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into the model of social development proposed in his
Theory of Communicative Action (several of the chapters
engage with this draft at length).
The quality of the contributions varies. Some echo
articles published by the authors elsewhere. Others,
however, particularly J. M. Bernstein’s trenchant secular-
ist critique of Habermas’ embrace of religion, offer new
perspectives and raise important challenges to which
Habermas must respond. Without a doubt the most
valuable piece of the book is Habermas’ own chapter,
where, in addition to his thoughtful (though by no means
comprehensive) responses to his critics, he clarifies his
use of terms like ‘genealogical’ and hints at the direction
his thought is taking in the unfinished monograph.
A note on the physical volume: the review copy had
a regrettably large number of typographical errors, both
in the text and citations, and pp. 57–88 were bound
upside-down and in reverse. Hopefully these issues have
been fixed in later printings.
Jacob Abolafia
(Harvard University)
The Ethics of Immigration by Joseph Carens.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 416pp.,
£22.00, ISBN 9780199933839
In this book, Joseph Carens brings together his
longstanding work on integration and border control
practices into a very comprehensive debate on the ethics
of immigration policies. The raison d’être of the first
part of the book is that the legitimacy of a liberal
democratic state in regulating its borders vindicates no
absolute moral permissibility for every single immigra-
tion and integration policy.Thus, Carens starts his ‘politi-
cal theory from the ground up’ (p. 9) on the policies by
assessing the social, economic and political rights
assigned to different migrant statuses, such as children of
immigrants, permanent residents, guest workers, irregular
migrants and their children, from an ethical perspective.
Carens successfully infers the limits of the different
inclusion and exclusion practices, both by grounding
them on democratic ideals and principles, and by appeal-
ing to the conventional morality that birthright citizen-
ship is based upon – namely, that it is protecting the
interests of the individual shaped by the scope of his or
her community, identity and prospects. Democracy as a
guiding framework in all of these empirically well-
established debates is therefore centred around the idea
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of social membership based on ‘residence over time’ (p.
160) from which different levels of interests and claims
are assessed in relation to the length of residence.
In the last two chapters Carens questions the
assumption that the state has a discretionary right over
its border control, and he delineates the limits of exclu-
sion in first admission policies. For Carens, none of the
communitarian claims justifies the stance against open
borders, including the claims to sovereignty, security
and the prioritisation of communal bonds.Although his
idea of social membership does not contribute to this
debate, it is not incompatible with it.
The book in general, and particularly in the first
part, is designed as an inquiry into the moral permis-
sibility of different inclusion and exclusion practices
such as naturalisation and the conferment of socio-
economic rights, and therefore is not a deeply philo-
sophical work. To some extent the book is a critical
depiction of conventional immigration practices rather
than self-reliantly contemplative. Although there is a
pro-inclusion stance in each of the cases studied, it stays
within the framework of pro-exclusion arguments and
does not seem to leave adequate space for contempo-
rary moral cosmopolitan debates on immigration, espe-
cially in the first part. Regardless, this book offers a
very well-written and insightful introduction for schol-
ars of migration in general – not simply for ethicists.
Yusuf Yuksekdag
(Linkoping University)
Trotsky: Writings in Exile by Kunal
Chattopadhyay and Paul Le Blanc (eds). London:
Pluto Press, 2012. 238pp., £14.99, ISBN 978 0 7453
3148 5
Leon Trotsky’s later writings collected in Trotsky: Writ-
ings in Exile (1929-40) bring together a sample of
works from perhaps the most fruitful period of the
revolutionary’s thought. Published as part of the Pluto
Press ‘Get Political’ series of edited volumes of radical
thought, it is clearly aimed at readers new to Trotsky.
The editors have chosen shorter essays and speeches
rather than his book-length writings, arguing that
‘excerpts do not provide a full sense of his ideas’ and
their selections ‘provide a comprehensive introduction
to his essential theoretical and political perspectives’ (p.
5). An introduction by Chattopadhyay and Le Blanc
gives biographical details of Trotsky’s life, the Trotskyist
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
movement during his lifetime and the period of his
exile from the Soviet Union (1929–40). Sections on
revolution, fascism, imperialism and the coming of the
Second World War organise the work; an up-to-date
reference and further reading section, perhaps the most
current on Trotsky, closes the book.
The volume’s strength lies in the editors’ belief that
Trotsky’s work is ripe for reassessment by a new gen-
eration of activists and political scientists. Trotsky’s het-
erodoxy is an organic strain of Marxist political thought
linked to pre-Soviet debates; while Western Marxists
were mostly academics, Leon Trotsky’s work placed
action on a par with theorising.The inclusion of impor-
tant speeches such as ‘In Defence of October’ give the
reader cogent summaries of Trotsky’s theories of per-
manent revolution, combined and uneven development,
and the complexities of the Soviet Union’s political
path. In an era witnessing a rebirth of class struggle
politics and major crises of capitalism, Trotsky’s argu-
ment that only the working class – via independent
political organisation outside bourgeois parties – can
fulfill both the democratic and socialist tasks of the era is
well worth re-examining. Further essays provide ample
summaries of his thoughts on fascism and right-wing
politics and how Marxists should organise politically.
Yet with most of these writings available freely
online, a better volume would aim more specifically at
providing a Marx-Engels Reader structure to all of
Trotsky’s writings, and not just those written in exile:
large excerpts from major works coupled with impor-
tant shorter speeches, essays and letters. Novice readers
would also be aided by a more extensive use of foot-
notes; the editors otherwise present names, terms and
events without the full contextualisation necessary for
understanding Trotsky as part of a political tradition
obscure to most contemporary readers who are not
already students of Marxist politics. Readers would
therefore be better served by acquiring more complete
editions of his writing.
Peter A. LaVenia
(Independent Scholar)
Toleration by Andrew Jason Cohen. Cambridge:
Polity Press, 2014. 176pp., £15.99, ISBN
9780745655574
What is toleration? Should we tolerate, and if so, why?
What should be tolerated? These are the main questions
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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243
that Andrew Jason Cohen has tried to answer in his
book (p. 1).Although Cohen believes that the history of
modern toleration is the history of Liberalism (p. 1), he
doesn’t offer an outline of such history. Instead, he
concentrates on providing a comprehensive account of
toleration. Cohen takes J. S. Mill’s Harm Principle as ‘the
most important normative principle of toleration’ (pp. 5
and 47). He argues that the three conditions of genuine
toleration are: (a) intentional non-interference; (b) a
sense of disapproval or dislike of something; and (c) a
principled reason for non-interference (pp. 14–16).
Cohen tries to defend the principle of toleration due to
its rationality and being ‘independent of any consensus’
(pp. 34 and 37).The whole book is allocated to explain-
ing and defending this kind of toleration, and Cohen
proposes many real and imaginary examples in order to
clarify his account of it.
The author explicates the harm principle and differ-
ent kinds of harm (and hurt), and offers the conditions
that warrant interference. He also adds a very important
qualification: the idea of consent. Cohen believes in
volenti non fit injuria, which is a jurisprudence principle
that indicates ‘what one welcomes (or consents to)
cannot be an injury or wrong (though it can hurt)’ (p.
47). This is followed by a discussion of four rival prin-
ciples of toleration: the offence principle, the benefit to
others principle, legal paternalism and legal moralism.
In comparison to these principles, Cohen develops his
own account of toleration and concludes that ‘the strict
version of the harm principle should be endorsed and
... the remaining four should be rejected’ (p. 56). The
author then extends the harm principle to other
spheres, such as the environment, animals and the busi-
ness world. Finally, Cohen examines some critical views
and paradoxes of toleration and calls it ‘an unfortunate
virtue’ because it is ‘indifferent to many and caring for
a few’ (p. 155).
In summary, the book is structured in a logical way,
the writing is very clear, the arguments are quite chal-
lenging and the chapters address the central theme of
the book properly. Cohen’s intention was not to write
either a textbook or an introduction to toleration. This
is a book that provides a new approach to toleration,
and I recommend it for postgraduate students and
researchers of politics, philosophy and jurisprudence.
Aref Ebadi
(University of Nottingham)
244
Secular Powers: Humility in Modern Political
Thought by Julie E. Cooper. Chicago, IL: Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 2013. 240pp., £28.00, ISBN
9780226081298
In a book that will be of great interest in those dealing
with the nature and development of early modern
political thought, Julie Cooper’s book, with its focus on
the secular critique of pride initialised by Thomas
Hobbes and continued by such thinkers as Spinoza and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, hopes to offer an alternative way
to understanding the development of that thought. In
order to develop her thesis she first needs to establish an
important fact, which is that the term ‘secular’ does not
mean, for example,‘atheist’ or ‘antireligious’, but rather it
is merely a strategy used both by theists and atheists to
understand politics and political activity as a human
construction. Once she has made clear what ‘secular’
does and does not mean, Cooper goes on to flesh out
the thesis of the book. By examining the secular critique
of pride in the thought of early modern political think-
ers, she presents an alternative account of the early
modern project of turning human finitude into ‘a source
of collective human empowerment’ (p. 4).
By approaching the subject the way she does,
Cooper hopes to offer an alternative interpretation of
what has been called the ‘secularisation hypothesis’. She
wishes to show that there is a much more complex
relationship in the development of early modern
thought, especially when one notes the similarities
among the concerns and themes between early modern
thinkers and early non-secular Neo-Augustinian think-
ers. Cooper’s book also offers new insights into the
development of the concepts of ‘sovereign power’ and
the ‘sovereign body’ that so shape the thought of early
modern political thinkers, illustrating that Hobbes,
Spinoza and Rousseau and their ilk were very aware of
the potential danger of hubris and arrogance that the
project they initialised potentially engendered.
Cooper’s examination of the secular character of
early modern political thought is continually contrasted
to the earlier Neo-Augustinian theme of secular power
and she hopes thereby to challenge the boundaries
between the man-centred and enabled view of political
theory and the concept of divinely assisted – or
empowered – political theology. Cooper goes on to
show that Hobbes’ initial critique of pride is continued
and developed by later theorists such as Spinoza and
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then Rousseau. These philosophers are each given a
whole chapter in which Cooper discusses how they
address the question of pride. In doing so she advances
the ‘secular’ critique of pride and tries to restrain the
hubris and arrogance that the man-centred nature of
sovereign power could unleash.
Clifford Angell Bates, Jr
(University of Warsaw)
The Edinburgh Companion to Poststructuralism
by Benoît Dillet, Iain MacKenzie and Robert
Porter (eds). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
2013. 546pp., £125.00, ISBN 9780748641222
This edited book collects together 22 commissioned
essays (plus one interview) about poststructuralism.
No classic texts or ‘famous thinkers’ are invited
here, just serious academics reflecting about the emer-
gence (Part I), methods (Part II), main themes (Part
III) and interdisciplinary trajectories (Part IV) of
perhaps the vaguest intellectual movement in the
late-twentieth century and its Anglo-Saxon re-
appropriation: ‘While “poststructuralism” may in effect
be an American invention, its key thinkers are all
French’ (p. 47).
Poststructuralism’s main representatives studied in
this Companion are Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, Félix
Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Jean-
François Lyotard and Jacques Derrida (p. 2), and its
characteristics are synthesised in a few formulas: it
comes ‘after structuralism; it is a form of relativism; it
celebrates the death of subject; it is a post-metaphysical
form of inquiry that has utterly displaced the idea of
truth; it is stylistically obtuse’ (p. 2). Many contributors
propose distinctions between poststructuralism (from
the 1960s onwards) and structuralism, which preceded
it until the 1970s (see the Introduction and Chapter 2).
Not a theory, but rather an intellectual movement,
structuralism included thinkers such as Claude Lévi-
Strauss, Roland Barthes, Jacques Lacan, Michel Fou-
cault, Louis Althusser, Nicos Poulantzas, Algirdas Julien
Greimas, Tzvetan Todorov, Jacques Derrida, Pierre
Bourdieu and the late rediscovery of the writings of
Ferdinand de Saussure (p. 70). However, because Lévi-
Strauss, Lacan and Althusser are common to both struc-
turalism and poststructuralism, they are not given the
focus they should have had in this book, as the editors
explain (p. 10).
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BOOK REVIEWS
The opening texts present the basic concepts of
poststructuralism, such as Chapter 4 on Foucault’s
archaeology of knowledge, genealogy and domination
(p. 111). The ensuing chapter focuses on Derrida’s
deconstruction. Most of the essays are not formal
exposés with definitions, but rather discussions or
articulations between two elements – for example,
poststructuralism and Marxism, or poststructuralism
and post-colonial theory, or Chapter 18 on
‘poststructuralism, resistance and utopia’ on Alain
Badiou and Slavoj Žižek. In sum, ‘poststructuralism is a
social and political event in philosophy’ (p. 385).
Not for undergraduates, this Edinburgh Companion to
Poststructuralism will please doctoral students in French
Studies, social theory and philosophy who already have
an interest in these conceptual approaches. Most of my
colleagues in IR and quantitative sociology would cer-
tainly feel lost in these pages. Although the best intro-
duction to poststructuralism remains the direct access
to the texts of Foucault and Althusser in their original
French versions, this Companion provides a good com-
promise and can be consulted at random.
Yves Laberge
(University of Ottawa)
Identity, Politics and the Novel: The Aesthetic
Movement by Ian Fraser. Cardiff: University of Wales
Press, 2013. 207pp., £90.00, ISBN 978 0 7083 2606 0
Questions concerning the production of works of art,
the engagement of the artist as well as the position of the
art work vis-à-vis issues of gender, class and race are no
longer the exclusive terrain of literary scholars and theo-
rists. The recent surge in the publication of political
philosophers’ discussions on the relationship between
aesthetics and politics indicates the popularity of an
interdisciplinary approach. Ian Fraser’s book highlights
this trend, emphasising the key issues of contemporary
politics through the lens of novels. Fraser underlines that
his work is informed and distinguished by its Marxist
approach. In the introduction, he presents the concept of
the ‘aesthetic self ’ to examine how the world is consti-
tuted socially and dialectically (p. 1).Through the works
of four renowned and controversial novelists of our
times (Milan Kundera, Ian McEwan, Michel
Houellebecq and J. M. Coetzee), Fraser traces the
concept of the ‘other’ and the possibility of social and
political change through the self’s encounter with it.
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245
Although Fraser’s approach is Marxist, he situates
clear and concise discussions around different philoso-
phers. Nietzsche, Kristeva, Aquinas and Hegel are
some of the philosophers who illuminate the analyses
of the novels in question, and Fraser provides clear
and concise elaborations on relevant ideas of each of
them. This is perhaps the greatest strength of the
book. The analyses of the novels proceed first with a
summary of the plot and then a parallelism drawn
between a particular philosophical concept (class,
abject, absurd, etc.) and the novel. These parallelisms
are clear and insightful and often transparent enough
to appeal to the general readership of these best-
selling novelists. Yet the political import suggested in
the introduction and the conclusion does not really
come through in the separate analyses. While some
Marxist connections (concerning discussions of E. P.
Thompson, Hegel and Adorno) are palpable, others
are more tenuous (as in the case of Kristeva, Aquinas
or Camus). While the author has no obligation to
justify his choice of thinkers, the overall argument
would have benefited from a clarification of how
these figures could contribute to a Marxist under-
standing of aesthetics. While this book is not a
radical intervention in literary theory or in political
philosophy, it nevertheless provides accessible ana-
lyses of some of the most controversial novels of our
times.
Irmak Ertuna Howison
(Beykent University, Istanbul)
The Political Theory of Political Thinking: The
Anatomy of a Practice by Michael Freeden.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 345pp.,
£55.00, ISBN 9780199568031
The core ambitions of this highly innovative work are
to establish the significance of the innumerable
thought-practices that figure within the complex pat-
terns of everyday political thinking, and to ask why it is
that these are routinely ignored or overlooked by
political theorists. It is to the author’s considerable
credit that he makes his heterodox case in a carefully
reasoned and intellectually sophisticated fashion. It can,
in part, be seen as an addition to the rising tide of work
emanating from Anglophone political theorists – often
grouped under the heading of ‘realism’ – which objects
to the prevalence of various kinds of moral philosophy
246
in the contemporary theorising of politics. But Michael
Freeden’s contribution is also sui generis because of his
sustained analytical emphasis upon the role of a variety
of semantic formulae, metaphors and images in
shaping, reinforcing and resisting standard forms of
political thinking. Accordingly, he unfolds a challenging
and imaginative research agenda for the study of the
most ordinary and commonplace forms of political
discourse and sentiment, as opposed to the rarefied and
philosophically rigorous reflections upon politics that
interest the majority of his fellow theorists.
Freeden starts out with the deceptively simple, but
rarely posed, question: what is it that defines the prac-
tice of thinking politically, as opposed to, say, histori-
cally or culturally? An important part of his answer
involves drawing attention to the variety of roles that
different kinds of political language play in relation to
some of the most important functions and imperatives
of political life. The thought-practices upon which he
alights are, he maintains, integral to the way in which
core political values such as order, legitimacy and
consent have become understood and challenged.
Among the various generic features of political think-
ing which the book’s main chapters illuminate are: the
inherent ‘arrogance’ of political thinking; the abiding
indeterminacy of political concepts; the drive towards
‘finality’ in political discourse; and the endeavour to
establish the sense of priority that is required to legiti-
mise the adoption of a particular programme or policy
response as opposed to innumerable other courses of
action not taken. Freeden illustrates the kinds of insight
such an analytical focus might yield as he ranges across
a number of specific cases, supplying interesting assess-
ments of the political discourses and symbolism asso-
ciated with, for instance, the Greenham Common
protesters, and the informal nationalist ceremonialism
that has been invented in the village of Royal Wootton
Bassett.
This is undoubtedly one of the most unusual books
written by a leading political theorist in the last few
years. Freeden calls upon his fellow theorists to reflect
more critically upon the political theory enterprise, as
well as to consider the importance and value of the
most ubiquitous and unremarkable forms of political
thinking and emotion.
Michael Kenny
(Queen Mary University of London)
POLITICAL THEORY
The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies by
Michael Freeden, Lyman Tower Sargent and Marc
Stears (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Xiii+736pp., £95.00, ISBN 9780199585977
Ideology Studies have emerged as a significant sub-field
within political science and a basic concept for the
social sciences, yet not many reference books are solely
dedicated to ideologies. This innovative and much
needed Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies, the first of
its kind, is neither a dictionary nor a collection of
famous essays about ideologies. Rather, it provides a
precise mapping that successfully indicates who says
what in terms of ideologies and related theories.
The first of the three sections presents the six main
frameworks for Ideology Studies. This first revisits the
origins of the concept, followed by a look at Marxism
and Neo-Marxism and then Althusser’s salient
re-conceptualisation of the ‘ideological moulding of
individuals’ (p. 32). Next comes Mannheim’s concep-
tualisation of ideology and the dark side of ideologies in
totalitarian contexts, plus the contested thesis of a pos-
sible ‘end of ideology’, which actually emerged in the
1940s, long before Daniel Bell’s contested book The End
of Ideology in 1960. In fact, this hypothetical disappear-
ance of ideologies implied a belief in ‘the dismissal of
totalitarian doctrines’ after the Second World War (p. 91).
There are too many topics covered in the Handbook’s
35 chapters to list them all here. Suffice it to say that
the middle section highlights the theoretical approaches
to Ideology Studies, successively borrowed from critical
theory, poststructuralism and post-colonialism, plus
many other political methodologies. Finally, ideologies
themselves are presented individually in single chapters
in the second half of the book, from conservatism to
Asian ideologies, including chapters on Anarchism, Lib-
eralism, Christian Democracy, Green ideology, Nation-
alism and fifteen other types of ideology.
Each of the chapters proceeds in a similar fashion,
discussing and articulating each selected topic from the
perspective of eight to ten social scientists and theo-
reticians, and the result is an indispensable reference
book on Ideology Studies – perhaps the most impor-
tant resource in its field because it situates the main
authors and subthemes precisely, as well as adding many
useful definitions.
This valuable handbook can also be consulted in
order to get an intelligent synthesis on a given aspect
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Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
related to ideologies. Therefore, it will serve as a basic
resource for libraries in English-speaking universities.
Very few dimensions remain untouched by this immense
book, although maybe a chapter on anti-Americanism or
an essay about the Anglo-Saxon worldview would be
relevant for a second edition. This excellent handbook
will be essential for students and young professors in
political science and all the social sciences, but also in
philosophy, media and cultural studies. I am not aware of
a more accurate reference book, at least in the English
language, in Ideology Studies.
Yves Laberge
(University of Ottawa)
Social and Political Thought of Julius Evola by
Paul Furlong. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. 192pp.,
£24.95, ISBN 9780415831277
Julius Evola was a thinker whose abstruse thought,
enigmatic style and prodigious output have conspired
with his reputation as a fascist to his being neglected by
English-speaking academics. Filling this lacuna, Paul
Furlong provides a clear summary of Evola’s thought
that is refreshingly dispassionate in its treatment of
views that are unpalatable. Furlong evidences a depth of
scholarship by his careful comparison of works and
editions of the same work, as well as an awareness of
philological issues – though this is done without cloud-
ing or hindering the pace of the exposition of the
substantial points. A good deal of biographical infor-
mation is also provided, which is highly useful given
Evola’s relative obscurity. This is a strong work and a
necessary read for anyone interested in Evola, or the
history of anti-Enlightenment thought.
Chapter 2 concerns Evola’s philosophical doctrines,
which intimately inform his entire social and political
thought. One criticism of this book is that a longer
treatment of these doctrines is deserved, given their
importance, and perhaps an author with greater philo-
sophical expertise might have been able to present them
in a more distinct and thorough manner. Chapter 3
illustrates Evola’s understanding of the importance of
tradition and the history of its disappearance in moder-
nity by comparison with the views of René Guénon.
Chapter 4 lays out Evola’s doctrines regarding the nature
of the state – namely, the total sovereignty of the state, its
independence from society and its organic nature. Here
Furlong also emphasises the sometimes exasperating
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247
negativity of Evola’s prose: ‘Evola can say what he does
not mean, much more specifically than what he does
mean’ (p. 70). Chapter 5 highlights the differences
between Evola and the fascists and Nazis on the issue of
nationalism, while Chapter 7 similarly contrasts Evola’s
‘race of the spirit’ (p. 119) with more popular biological
racisms. Chapter 6 concerns Evola’s political prescrip-
tions for the far right after the Second World War, which
is essentially quietist in calling only for apolitia: the
‘irrevocable interior distance from this society and from
its “values” ’ (p. 98). However, in addition to this, Evola
is shown to be open to the violent acts inspired by his
work being committed in contemporaneous Italy.
In the conclusion Furlong convincingly disposes of
the claim made by Roger Griffin, and assumed by
many others, that Evola is merely a philosopher of
fascism, suggesting instead that he should be under-
stood ‘within the context of European conservative
thought since 1789’ (p. 145).
Marcus William Hunt
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Legitimacy and Revolution in a Society of
Masses: Max Weber, Antonio Gramsci, and the
Fin-de Siècle Debate on Social Order by M.F.N.
Gigliolo. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers,
2013. 260pp., £44.95, ISBN 9781412851626
The book examines the cultural and political back-
ground of early twentieth-century theories of political
legitimacy elaborated primarily by Georges Sorel,
Vilfredo Pareto, Max Weber and Antonio Gramsci. The
question it deals with is: how did these great sociologists
confront the issue of the political legitimacy of the
democratic state? On the one hand, secularisation and
the advent of the French Revolution had undermined
monarchical rule. On the other, the widespread social
changes brought about by industrialisation and urbani-
sation had led to the formation of working-class parties
and unions. Thus, in the nineteenth century, European
political elites confronted numerous challenges, includ-
ing the diffusion and expansion of universal suffrage and
the emergence of parliamentary systems of government.
It was a time of profound change in which many began
to question the traditional underpinnings of the nation
state. The theories of the various sociologists are inter-
preted as the outcome of a process of redefinition of the
concept of ‘legitimacy’.
248
In the section on Weber the author contrasts the
concept of ‘political legitimacy’ based upon the perma-
nence, rules and impartiality of bureaucratic authority of
modern nation states with ‘charismatic leadership’. For
Weber, the latter allowed for the preservation and en-
hancement of political legitimacy and democracy since
the competitive electoral process forges national leaders
strong enough to control the bureaucracy. Another
excellent chapter is dedicated to Sorel’s concept of
‘legitimacy’. In contrast to Weber, Sorel challenged the
legitimacy of parliamentary regimes arguing that true
legitimacy rested with the workers and their revolution-
ary leaders.The chapter on Pareto analyses the relationship
between the circulation of elite theory and legitimacy.
When, for example, the governing class has made a mess
of government, a new elite will step in to replace it. For
Pareto, the process was cyclical and inevitable.
In conclusion this is an excellent book outlining a
political debate on legitimacy that is still relevant.
There are only two problems with it. First, the author
tends to describe in more detail than warranted the
life and personality of the sociologists in question.
Second, the author has failed to include a chapter on
Carl Schmitt. He is central to the post-First World
War debate on political legitimacy and his exclusion
from this work is somewhat troubling. Schmitt argued
that democratic constitutional systems such as the
Weimar Republic lacked widespread political legiti-
macy because they permitted the undermining of
their foundations by allowing all parties (including
anti-democratic parties) an equal chance to obtain
political power.
Paolo Morisi
(Independent Scholar)
Political Affections: Civic Participation and
Moral Theology by Joshua Hordern. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013. 312pp., £65.00, ISBN
978 0 19 964681 4
Political scientists may find Political Affections: Civic Par-
ticipation and Moral Theology a difficult read, in part
because of the amorphous quality of the subject of affect
and identity, and in part because of the unfamiliarity on
the part of political scientists with the languages of
psychology, neuroscience and theology upon which
Joshua Hordern draws. It would be unfortunate if they
were dissuaded by this. Political scientists are accustomed
POLITICAL THEORY
to questions of how a given set of ends may be pursued
in such a way as either to maximise or to satisfice their
attainment, but typically the ends are simply assumed to
be given. Hordern asserts that emotions should not
simply be dismissed as either inherently irrational or
potentially incendiary.
If the so-called ‘democratic deficit’ that is founded in
cynicism about politics and exhortations for participa-
tion and/or support is to be overcome, it will be nec-
essary, Hordern argues, to consider how political
communities are able over time to attract loyalty. He
considers some approaches that have been taken. Liber-
als, approaching the issue from a secular point of view,
tend to propose some version of cosmopolitanism. Such
an approach has much to commend it, but actual people
may find it in the end somewhat thin and abstract.At its
best it reminds us of the need to recognise the rights of
people with whom we have no connection but a
common humanity; at its worst it turns into vacuous
rhetoric that might be summed up as ‘we love human-
kind; it’s just actual persons we find tedious’. Hordern
shows some sympathy for the approach adopted by
Roger Scruton in which affection for the near and dear,
and for the local, is seen not as an alternative to broader
loyalties, but as a necessary first step. Drawing on the
Judeo-Christian tradition of moral theology, Hordern
suggests that such a tradition has a good deal to say not
only about how to inspire loyalty and affect, but how to
associate this, unlike the approach conventionally taken
in liberal democracies, with joy.
There is much here worth pondering. If Hordern
had devoted more attention to relating what he has to
say to the debates and literature of political and other
social scientists, and if he had elaborated on the role of
theological or religious sources in an increasingly plu-
ralist society, Political Affections might have been even
better; but it is certainly worth reading, and worth
reflecting upon.
James G. Mellon
(Independent scholar)
The Gandhian Moment by Ramin Jahanbegloo
(Foreword by the Dalai Lama). Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2013. 196pp., £18.95, ISBN
978 0 674 06595 6
This monograph argues for the continuing global
relevance of the ‘Gandhian Moment’ to a human
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Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
community plagued by violence and inequality. This
argument is supported with reference to Muslim activ-
ist Khan Abdul Ghaffer Khan, whose remarkable prin-
cipled non-violence among the Pashtun people of
Colonial India earned him the appellation ‘Gandhi of
the Frontier’. Ramin Jahanbegloo shows how such
Gandhian activism is underlain by an integral
worldview encompassing elements of tolerance, non-
violence and political solidarity, with each of these
factors being crucially mediated by love. Moreover,
Gandhian non-violence encourages self-sufficiency,
supports human diversity and reinforces dialogical
empathy. For Mohandas Gandhi, at stake here was a
personal and political transformation to ensure that
proper ethics govern all exercises of power. As
Jahanbegloo demonstrates, to support such transforma-
tion, Gandhi advocated that political power be held
diffusely. In this light, states need not only be account-
able to their people and the common good, they also
have to foster substantive participation. Modernism,
industrialism and militarism remove spaces for wide
and deep participation. As such, Gandhi critiqued mod-
ernist civilisations and empires, preferring what
Jahanbegloo names ‘micro-sovereignty’ as a key political
means toward the ends of intercultural harmony.
Through this mapping, Jahanbegloo firmly places
Gandhian non-cooperation beyond the merely tactical.
The resultant moral setting is holistic.To take one of the
monograph’s examples, Gandhi was not just seeking
home rule for India, but rather desired to transform
India society. Jahanbegloo is right to note some tensions
here in his subject’s life. Notably, Gandhi did not advo-
cate the end of the caste system in India – only the
removal of sub-castes and the amelioration of the situa-
tion of Dalits. Another example that might have been
addressed was Gandhi’s treatment of his wife, Kasturba,
which was not always in keeping with the vision of
individual transformation that Jahanbegloo renders so
poignantly. Furthermore, given the author’s convictions
about the Islamic and intercultural application of
Gandhian insight, mention may have been made of Said
Nursi, the Kurdish Muslim scholar, who, despite his
ethnicity, was called ‘the Gandhi of the Turks’ for reject-
ing violence while struggling against the Turkish gover-
nment’s secularising Kemalist reforms.
Nonetheless, Jahanbegloo remains cogent. For
example, he exposes glimpses of Gandhi in contempo-
rary Iranian activism and the Arab Spring. In offering
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Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
249
medicine for a troubled world, the book becomes a
normative monograph. It is also critical, well-written
and intelligent. These factors combine to make The
Gandhian Moment a worthwhile read.
Christopher Hrynkow
(University of Saskatchewan)
Rhetorical Citzenship and Public Deliberation
by Christian Kock and Lisa S. Villadsen (eds).
State College, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press,
2012. 341pp., £64.50, ISBN 9780271053875
The titular ‘rhetorical citizenship’ of this edited collec-
tion embodies the linkage between deliberation and
citizenship and is offered by the editors as ‘a way of
conceptualizing the discursive, processual, participatory
aspect of civic life’ (p. 5) where ‘discourse is not prefa-
tory to real action but is in many ways constitutive of
civic engagement’ (p. 1). Across eighteen substantive
chapters, not counting the insightful, collection-
framing introduction, the book seeks to develop rhe-
torical citizenship as a concept by bringing together
contributions from sociology, discourse analysis, com-
munications studies, political science and philosophy.
Structurally, the chapters are divided into three sec-
tions, each prefaced with its own mini-summarising
introduction.The first part, which contains three strong
chapters, considers the historical roots of deliberation
in democratic theory, charting examples from figures
such as Rousseau, de Tocqueville, J. S. Mill and the
Sophists, to increasing trends in contemporary journal
publications. The second section, made up of twelve
chapters that are further sub-divided into three the-
matic ‘parts’, encompasses the majority of the book
with contributions covering a diversity of topics
including the ‘pub politicking’ of online forums, presi-
dential debates, gendered rhetoric around war, satirical
songs about censorship, Tony Blair and the responses
engendered by a provocative political intervention.The
aim, the editors explain, is to ‘argue that our individual
contributions to civic life can take many forms as we
are called on in a range of different roles’ (p. 6) and this
section certainly aims high and wide. ‘Harmony is not
union. Nor are the chapters in this collection’ (p. 9), we
are further told, and this is certainly true. Arguably,
however, the clarity of purpose demonstrated across the
introduction and the first section does become hazier
as the chapters continue.
250
The concept of ‘rhetorical citizenship’ is advocated
on both normative and analytical grounds. I like the
term’s connotations, yet I came away unclear as to what
it actually signified here beyond a broad label for delib-
erating democrats of a generally Habermasian persua-
sion.A well-edited and engrossing collection, something
nevertheless felt missing: an agonist ethos. Rhetoric –
explicitly foregrounded here – involves argumentation
and contestation. The editors indicate their acceptance
of ‘political discussion as essentially agonist’ (albeit as
only one of many ‘concerns’ that ‘inform [their] think-
ing’ [p. 7]), and Manfred Kraus points to this aḡon in his
admirable chapter on the Sophists, but agonism is
missing from both the index and the third section’s
deliberative prescriptions.This is a shame. Nevertheless,
the collection convinces that rhetorical citizenship is a
concept worth pursuing further.
David S. Moon
(University of Bath)
Power and Society: A Framework for Political
Inquiry by Harold D. Lasswell and Abraham
Kaplan. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers,
2014. 295pp., £30.50, ISBN 9781412852807
Harold Lasswell, a leading contributor to modern politi-
cal science, with philosopher Abraham Kaplan, presents
here the most general statement of his approach to
political analysis. A list of basic definitions and proposi-
tions, the book pictures politics as the struggle to allocate
social values among leading actors. The first part of the
book lays the groundwork of politics in personal motives
and association, the second part focuses on power, and
the third part on the resulting functions, structures and
processes. Values provide the demands that motivate
interpersonal relations and position actors for the exer-
cise of influence and power, especially evaluations
around the distribution of wealth and the degree to
which an actor is taken into consideration by others.
Power is the ability to realise intended outcomes in
particular situations, whereas political power is the ability
to determine the overall social distribution. Besides sanc-
tions, violence and wealth, the power to make decisions
depends on ideas and organisational relations. The func-
tion of political power is effective social control, evident
in forms such as autocratic, oligarchic or republican
systems of rule. Democracy is a system in which the
governed have a degree of influence on elites.
POLITICAL THEORY
Noteworthy contributions are evident. First is the
emphasis on the role of values in the formation of
groups and political conflicts among elites. Next is the
view that power is the ability to dominate particular
actors over particular types of behaviour – a viewpoint
which animates Lasswell’s well-known idea that politics
involves who gets what, when and how. Further, the
overall conceptualisation puts conflict between group
leaders at the centre, providing a realistic, if elitist, view
of politics. Finally, the book’s useful compendium of
important contributions to the study of politics up to
the 1940s provides a vision that is still relevant today.
Yet, taken in isolation, the large inventory and
abstract nature of the concepts and propositions
covered makes for difficult reading. The introduction
by Ronald Brunner helps, although familiarity with the
impressive corpus of Lasswell’s work would best enable
the reader to appreciate this work. Another concern is
that mention of the kinds of values that make com-
petitive democracy possible (i.e. egalitarianism and lib-
ertarianism) appear late in the book, even though their
insertion does exemplify Lasswell’s view of the primacy
of values in regulating politics. One other issue is the
large complex of base values identified as underlying
power, which makes sense but is underdeveloped.
Overall, Lasswell’s theory of politics deserves further
attention, and this book is a good place to start.
Joel D. Wolfe
(University of Cincinnati)
Public Reason and Political Community by
Andrew Lister. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. 235pp.,
£65.00, ISBN 9781780936574
During the preceding two decades the concept of
‘public reason’ has been the focus of a substantial and
continually expanding volume of scholarship.While the
work of John Rawls can legitimately be identified as
the principal stimulus for the current interest in the
idea of ‘public reason’, it is also true that a number of
political theorists have developed their own very inter-
esting and distinct accounts of the concept and its
potential role in contemporary multicultural liberal
democracies. Public Reason and Political Community is
one of the most recent additions to that genre.
In this relatively compact yet sophisticated treatise,
Andrew Lister focuses on ‘public reason’ understood as
‘[the] principles of public justifiability that are meant to
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
guide the conduct of citizens as well as officials’ (p. 14).
He proposes two general ‘frames’ for analysing the
demands of public justifiability: a reasons-for-decisions
frame and a coercion frame. The latter contends that it is
the use of coercive state action that must be justified,
while the former asserts that it is only necessary to justify
the reasons offered for political decisions. Lister con-
cludes that the most important distinction between the
two is what each entails as the default response to an
inability to satisfy the ‘idealized unanimity requirement’
(p. 9) associated with public reason:Whereas the reasons-
for-decisions frame results in the exclusion of all reason-
ably contestable beliefs from the public deliberation
process, inaction (i.e. a refusal to enact the proposed
policy/law) is the default position of the coercion frame.
Lister argues that the most persuasive justification for
using public reason is not, as is commonly asserted, that
doing so demonstrates respect for individuals as free and
equal moral agents, but that it supports the development
and maintenance of ‘civic friendship [and, by extension,
political community] despite deep disagreement’ (p.
105).
To make his case, Lister surveys and rebuts a number
of other justifications offered for the use of public
reason, explains why the argument from ‘respect’ is less
successful than the ‘civic friendship’ argument with
regard to facilitating the realisation of social justice, and
uses the issue of same-sex marriage to demonstrate the
superiority of the reasons-for-decisions model.
Public Reason and Political Community offers an
extremely interesting and provocative analysis of a topic
whose philosophical and practical importance will only
continue to increase. Lister’s argument is certain to
stimulate productive debate, and is deserving of wide-
spread engagement both within and beyond the
academy.
Shaun P. Young
(University of Toronto)
Democratic Extremism in Theory and Practice:
All Power to the People by Paul Lucardie.
Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. 196pp., £80.00, ISBN
9780415603126
Paul Lucardie’s book on democratic extremism is a
remarkable work on democratic theory that offers
critical and highly original insights from both a theo-
retical and an historical/empirical perspective. The
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Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
251
main purpose of this book, as the author stresses in his
introduction, ‘is to contribute to the debate about
democracy by investigating the claims of the classical
school’ (p. 6). He does so by concentrating on ‘extrem-
ists – i.e. classical democrats who reject the prevailing
“mixed systems” completely and want to hand all
power to the people’ (p. 7). Before moving to the main
body of the book, Lucardie provides a useful excursus
on non-democratic varieties of extremism (Chapter 2),
clarifying at the same time the notion of extremism as
he understands and uses it throughout his analysis.
The rest of the book is divided into three parts, each
one devoted to a different form/model of ‘democratic
extremism’ and its various hybrids. So, in Chapter 3,
Lucardie engages with ‘assembly democracy’ (from
Ancient Athens to Bookchin’s libertarian municipalism
and some contemporary Swiss cantons), then proceeds
to the ‘bounded-delegate/Jacobin democracy’ in
Chapter 4 (from the Jacobins and the Paris Commune
to today’s Switzerland and some US states), to close
with the ‘sortitionist model’ in Chapter 5 (again starting
from Ancient Athens to continue with Burnheim’s
‘demarcy’, to reach the contemporary jury system and
electoral reform in certain provinces of Canada). What
makes the read even more enjoyable is the fact that
each of these chapters begins with a short piece of
political fiction giving us a sneak peek on the specific
focus through a vivid illustration or pre-figuration of
each project, as if it were to be (fully) realised in today’s
terms.
Every chapter strictly follows the same form. It first
focuses on and critically assesses the existing theories
around each model, then it scrutinises the relevant
practical/historical experiences and finally it provides a
critical evaluation in terms of five criteria inspired by
the relevant elaborations of thinkers like David
Beetham, Graham Smith, John Dryzek and Robert
Dahl. In this way, Lucardie successfully manages to
highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each
model, theory or practical experience, and to reflect on
their future possibilities. Finally, he closes the book by
providing some fruitful general conclusions in his final
chapter, where he critically evaluates and compares
all three models vis-à-vis contemporary democratic
challenges.
To sum up, this is more than a significant contribu-
tion to the literature on democracy. It is a rigorous
demonstration of concrete method and analytical
252
clarity and a fascinating read. It is well-written and
consistently organised. Its insights could both help
scholars and graduate students in their research and
trigger the imagination of those actually involved in
political activism or institutional politics.
Giorgos Katsambekis
(Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Recognition by Cillian McBride. Cambridge: Polity
Press, 2013. 184pp., £14.99, ISBN 9780745648484
In this book Cillian McBride provides a wide-ranging,
but structured argument. It is an accessible contribution
to the study of recognition that is sure to be of interest
to both political philosophers and members of the
public interested in gaining some critical purchase on
the conflicting recognitive demands made in a diverse
and stratified society.
Chapter 1 raises questions relating to the politics
of recognition, and gives a strong critical summary of
contemporary writing on the matter, especially of
Charles Taylor’s account of the tension within the
modern social imaginary between universal respect
and particular recognition. Through this discussion
McBride reaches the conclusion that the politics of
recognition as currently configured, because of its divi-
sion of the population into essentialist categories and its
employment of the deficit model of recognition, fails to
respond appropriately to cultural pluralism.
Chapter 2 explains the significance of Axel
Honneth’s three forms of recognition: love, respect and
esteem. McBride discusses how instances of sustained
disrespectful treatment, such as slavery, affect one’s self-
conception, and argues that one can maintain self-
respect in such conditions through ‘virtual recognition’
in which our self-respect is preserved by contemplation
of how we ought to be respected, in an imagined ‘ideal
moral community’ (p. 69).While McBride convincingly
shows that an already established self can survive the
withdrawal of recognition by its peers, the question
remains open as to whether recognition relations are a
more purely empirical phenomenon than he suggests.
McBride does not establish, or question, whether a self
that was not initially socialised in conditions of respect
would have the desire for respect. Similarly, McBride
does not investigate examples of ‘virtual recognition’ in
pre-modern or non-Western societies, leaving open the
possibility that ‘virtual recognition’ is an exclusively
POLITICAL THEORY
modern, Kantian thought rather than a universal moral
resource.
Chapter 3 deals with esteem, and contains an
informative history of attitudes towards self-esteem, or
pride, from Aristotle to Adam Smith. This treatment is
complemented with a history of ideas concerning
social distinction, from Rousseau to Bourdieu.
McBride highlights the inter-relationship between
social and self-esteem and more traditional economic
indicators of inequality.
Chapter 4 discusses the possibility of reconciling the
tensions between our desires for equal respect and
differential esteem, but reaches a sceptical conclusion.
Chapter 5, finally, contains a discussion emphasising
the ways in which agents actively manage the
recognitive demands made upon them – an attractive
position that steers between individualist and
communitarian extremes.
Marcus William Hunt
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Metamorphoses of the City: On the Western
Dynamic by Pierre Manent (trans. Marc LePain).
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013.
376pp., £24.95, ISBN 9780674072947
Pierre Manent here expands on themes announced in
his earlier work concerning the character of political
forms and their significance in Western political
thought. Although he charts the history of these politi-
cal forms from the city states of Greek antiquity,
through the Roman Empire, the universal Catholic
Church and finally the modern nation state, the soul of
the book lies in a profound engagement with a range
of texts, including those of Homer, Plato, Aristotle,
Augustine, Montaigne, Montesquieu and Rousseau.
The key chapter is on Cicero, for it is in his work that
we see the mark of the transition from the city to a
political form – the empire – which has as its essence
the constant, self-generating motion of the political
community. In this connection, Manent distinguishes
‘Greek’ from ‘Roman’ political science. He argues for
the resurrection of the latter to combat the proclivity in
contemporary political science to displace the primacy
of the political form with its putative socio-economic
and psychological ‘determinants’.
This is a well-worn path, but Manent does not
always walk it in a steady fashion. He provides some
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
astonishing readings of the classical texts, forcefully
pulling us towards his argument that the universal lies
at the heart of seemingly diverse reflections on what it
means to live in the kind of political communities
characteristic of the West. He rehabilitates a universal
history not as the social or economic evolution of the
West or, in Weberian mode, as a parenthetically con-
tained process of modernisation driven by values as
facts, but rather as immanent in Western thought as the
striving for the very highest thing (God) that can be
thought.This struggle to establish congruence between
the idea of the ‘largest’ thing we can experience – with
the gradual substitution of ‘humanity’ for the divine –
and the form of the political community in which we
live is what accounts for the ‘Western dynamic’. Hegel
might be thought a significant reference for this argu-
ment, but he receives scant regard; Manent sees no
happy resolution to this history.
Despite the immense erudition and eloquence of his
interpretations, Manent leaves us with the disappointing
and politically conservative conclusion that the future of
the West remains in the institutionalisation of a universal
humanity in the nation state. Such a provocative analysis
of the variety of political forms in political thought
demands a bolder approach to the potential for their
recapitulation – or re-imagining – in the present.
Jason Edwards
(Birkbeck, University of London)
Capitalism, Corporations and the Social Con-
tract: A Critique of Stakeholder Theory by
Samuel F. Mansell. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 2013. 185pp., £55.00, ISBN 978 1 107
01552 4
In this short but very rich book, Samuel Mansell
dissects and assesses the sociological and normative
underpinnings of the stakeholder theory of the corpo-
ration – i.e. the theory that aims at reconciling the
reality of a capitalist socio-economic order (one
grounded on private property and contractual
exchange) with the normative ideal of corporations
turned into servants ‘of a range of stakeholders that
make up the society in which the corporation gener-
ates’, or, which is the same, making corporations serve
interests other than (and occasionally very different
from, if not actually contradictory to) those of share-
holders (p. 8).
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253
Using key concepts from the Western canon of politi-
cal theory in very parsimonious and accurate ways, the
author reveals the extent to which stakeholder theories
end up granting corporations a state or quasi-state role,
without which going beyond the protection of share-
holder interests is hard to justify in a capitalist corpora-
tion (Chapters 3 and 6).The rub is that such a quasi-state
role is highly contradictory to the very nature and
understanding of capitalist corporations (Chapter 5).
Such a role will render the agent (managers)-principal
(shareholders) problem intractable, while imperiling the
integrity of the property of shareholders and leading to
breaches of contract. None of the different variants of
stakeholder theory (social contract, public interest, dis-
tributive justice and fairness, as characterised in Chapter
3) is capable of overcoming this fatal contradiction.The
line of reasoning that leads Mansell to this conclusion is
very compelling. But perhaps the most interesting chap-
ters of the book are the last two, in which the author
rounds off the argument by showing the limitations of
shareholder theory, using Kant’s distinction between
perfect and imperfect duties to reveal the tunnel vision
implicit in any reductionist understanding of share-
holder value maximisation (Chapter 6) and unearthing
the repressed but in-built longing for the state in stake-
holder theory (Chapter 7).
The reader ends the book wondering what implica-
tions the claims made have for the way we understand
not only the corporation, but also the state. Indeed, the
author could well have dealt with the relevance that his
argument should have for the reform of corporate gov-
ernance in his conclusions.The very fact that the argu-
ment has potential beyond the present book is indicative
of how the author has managed to make highly relevant
a topic that is often regarded as too technical to be
considered by mainstream political theory. The book
should be essential reading not only for those interested
in the theory and practice of business administration, but
also for political philosophers at large.
Agustín José Menéndez
(University of León)
Hegel on Religion and Politics by Angelica Nuzzo
(ed.). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press,
2013. 247pp., £51.11, ISBN 978 1 4384 4565 6
What is the relationship between religion and politics
in modern capitalist society? And what implications
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does this relationship have for religious diversity and
democracy around the world? Angelica Nuzzo
addresses these questions through the works of Hegel.
She argues that although much has been written about
Hegel’s ideas on religion and politics separately, not
much has been done to understand the dialectical
relationship between religion and politics as such. In
Hegel on Religion and Politics, she brings together ten
distinguished Hegelian scholars to address the above
questions and examine their relevance in today’s
context.
In the Introduction, Nuzzo sets the tone of the book
and outlines the debate.The first essay, by Mark Tunick,
looks at the fundamental role of religion for the state.
According to him, the role of religion is to support the
state by motivating citizens’ political participation.
However, in Chapter 2, Rachel Bayefsky argues that all
kinds of religions do not play a supporting role; it is
only ‘true religion’ (as opposed to superstition or
fanaticism) that supports the state. Hegel therefore
argues that the state should promote ‘true religions’
and act as a strong defender of religious freedom and
tolerance.
Lack of tolerance between religions gives rise to
religious conflicts. Such conflicts, according to Kevin
Thompson, should not be seen as a mere theological
opposition, but as ‘a theological-political opposition’ (p.
12). The answers to it, argues Robert Williams, lie not
in ‘conflict-free harmony’, but in ‘reconciliation’ (pp.
133–4). Hegel rejects the idea of a state religion and
advocates religious pluralism, which, he believes, forms
the foundation for democratic social order. For Hegel,
religion and politics are co-dependent: while modern
political principles and rights are rooted in religious
assumptions, religion itself depends on secular political
institutions for its realisation.The authors broadly agree
that ‘religion and politics are thus “reciprocal guarantees
of strength” and each is conceptually unintelligible
without the other’ (p. 214).
Although the volume is well-argued and lucidly
written, it suffers from two shortcomings. First, by
accepting the state as the ultimate sphere of ethics, the
authors have ignored the fact that the state could also
undermine freedom. Second, there is no discussion of
the politicisation of religion, which today is a major
cause of conflict around the world. Despite this, the
book successfully presents the dialectical relationship
between religion and politics in the modern world.
POLITICAL THEORY
Taken together, the volume provides innovative theo-
retical understandings on Hegel’s political thought and
is recommended for students of philosophy, political
science and religious studies.
Sarbeswar Sahoo
(Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi)
Just Freedom: A Moral Compass for a Complex
World by Philip Pettit. New York: W. W. Norton,
2014. 258pp., £16.99, ISBN 9780393063974
For those familiar with Philip Pettit’s republicanism,
Just Freedom offers little more than a concise restate-
ment of his key arguments. For readers new to repub-
lican theory, this book provides a direct, clear, and
highly readable introduction.
Pettit’s aim in Just Freedom is ambitious. In our
world of overwhelming information and mass com-
munication we lack a ‘moral compass’, a shared ref-
erence point for assessing policies, institutions and
opinions. Pettit argues that republican theory fills this
void: freedom as non-domination can be our moral
compass.
In Part I, Pettit builds the republican moral compass,
restating his republican theory. He begins with a brisk
overview of republicanism’s familiar history and its
interplay with rival theories. Next, focusing on
freedom in isolated choices, he outlines the conception
of freedom as non-domination. Freedom of choice
means more than just non-interference; we must ensure
that no-one has even the power to interfere in our
choices. Finally, Pettit defines a free person as one who
enjoys the ‘basic liberties’; the broadest range of choice
available to all concurrently.
In Part II, Pettit argues that maximising republican
freedom ensures justice. Three chapters deal with three
tiers of justice: social justice requires freedom between
individuals; political justice requires freedom of citizens
from the state; and international justice is freedom
between peoples. In each case Pettit argues that repub-
licanism yields novel policies that will be widely com-
pelling; republicanism can be the moral compass we
lack.
Just Freedom is clear and persuasive. Pettit’s concise
exposition of republican concepts is accessible, with
well-chosen examples illuminating key points. His
republicanism will attract all who seek a politics of
equal, empowered citizens. For readers familiar with
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BOOK REVIEWS
Pettit’s work, Just Freedom covers little new ground.
The sections on republican freedom, social justice and
democracy are concise restatements of arguments in On
the People’s Terms (Cambridge University Press, 2012),
with a new section on international justice. Part II’s
application of republicanism to policy is thought-
provoking, but falls short of providing concrete recom-
mendations. Proposals come with the proviso that
serious empirical work must precede firm conclusions.
As a result, most proposals are tentative.
Perhaps these criticisms ask too much of Pettit, who
writes, ‘this book should be taken neither as a theo-
retical treatise nor as a practical manifesto’ (p. xxviii).
Pettit aims to provide principles we can use like a
compass. In conjunction with a detailed map of the
locality and some imagination, republicanism can aid
our navigation of complex societies.
Tom Hannant
(Queen Mary University of London)
Mill by Frederick Rosen. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2013. 336pp., £18.99, ISBN 9780199271061
Frederick Rosen reassesses John Stuart Mill’s philoso-
phy by using hermeneutic insights derived from Mill’s
System of Logic (1843), the Principles of Political Economy
(1848) and his intellectual encounter with Auguste
Comte. Rosen’s thesis is that ethology (the science of
character) and logic (as a tool for the discovery of
truth) provide the foundation for a better understand-
ing of Mill’s social and political thought developed in
his most famous works such as On Liberty (1859),
Utilitarianism (1861) and Considerations on Representative
Government (1861).
The book is divided into three parts: ‘System of
Logic’, ‘The Spell of Comte’ and ‘Principles of Political
Economy’. The last chapter crams, unfortunately into a
rather limited space, the analysis of Mill’s feminist
masterpiece, The Subjection of Women (1869), and the
Conclusion.
The story of Mill’s encounter with Comte occu-
pies a central place in the book. The Mill–Comte
correspondence ‘forms an important bridge’ between
the Logic and the Principles (p. 7), and represents a
significant moment in the evolution of Mill’s
thought. It consists of 89 letters written between
1841 and 1847, and chronicles Mill’s initial philo-
sophical engagement and eventual disappointment
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255
with Comte due to disagreement on key issues. The
study of Auguste Comte and Positivism (1865) shows
Mill’s discipleship–rejection relationship with Comte,
his re-entering of ‘the Bentham camp through the
new orientation towards political economy’, as well as
Comte’s influence (positive and negative) on Mill’s
philosophy (p. 113).
The discussion of representative government,
cooperation, socialism, private property, liberty and des-
potism develops both in the context of political ethol-
ogy, which is described as ‘the study of the character
and education of the people in society and the causes
of its institutions’ (p. 11), and of logic. It is freedom of
thought guided by logic that leads to truth – not
unlimited and directionless freedom. The Socratic
elenchus that tests the validity of our views is linked to
the idea of active character required for the establish-
ment of a liberal polity. In reflecting on socialism, Mill
considers such issues as the British national character,
education and utility. Finally, Mill’s radical critique of
patriarchy in The Subjection of Women shows the appli-
cation of his views on ethology, freedom, despotism and
human improvement on the issue of gender equality
and women’s emancipation.
This book contributes to the current trend of
revisiting and reassessing Mill’s philosophy through
readings that contextualise his thought and celebrate
the richness and complexity of his narrative. We are
invited on a journey of exploration and critical
reflection as Mill’s methodological and conceptual
apparatus is examined, and key notions and strategies
of his philosophical project are identified and ana-
lysed. Professor Rosen’s monograph on Mill deserves
the attention of philosophers, political theorists and
intellectual historians.
Stamatoula Panagakou
(University of Cyprus)
Dictatorship (trans. Michael Hielzl and Graham
Ward) by Carl Schmitt. Cambridge: Polity Press,
2013. 288pp., £55.00, ISBN 9780745646473, £17.99
ISBN 9780745646480
This translation of Die Diktatur by Michael Hielzl and
Graham Ward, published by Polity Press, finally makes
available in English Carl Schmitt’s important work of
1921. As of now, most of the important writings by
Schmitt are currently available in English, thus allowing
256
English-reading students access to this very important
and controversial twentieth-century political thinker,
who has great significance among many contemporary
leftist critics of liberalism and the anti-political character
of liberalism.
The importance of Schmitt’s Die Diktatur is found in
the fact that it offers its readers not only a thorough
examination of the interconnection between sovereign
power and crisis, such as could be found in much
earlier translated works like Politische Theologie or Der
Begriff des Politischen (Concept of the Political), but also a
very extensive historical examination of how the
modern state in its European context attempts to insti-
tutionalise, through executive power, the use of emer-
gency power as found in the Roman political
institution called the ‘dictator’. Schmitt clearly tries to
show how the intellectual founders of the modern state
(Machiavelli, Bodin, Hobbes, Rousseau, etc.) all tried to
find the means to bring into the concept of the state
the power and effectiveness that the Roman dictator
had in dealing with a crisis that normal powers of
executive offices restrained by law seem unable to
resolve – but without the dangers and threats to politi-
cal liberty that the abuse of such power posed. In
examining this tension, Schmitt shows how the
concept of the power within ‘the commissarial dictator’
within certain constitutional arrangements (in
Schmitt’s case, the Weimar Constitution at the time of
writing) could address this problem, albeit favouring
survival of the state as the paramount goal of such an
office.
Now with this outstanding and very careful and
meretricious translation of Die Diktatur by Hielzl and
Ward, English-reading students of political thought
have access to this important text. And in that text they
will see what Schmitt has to say concerning the ques-
tion of sovereign state power and the nature and char-
acter of executive power in times of crisis. They no
longer need to rely on interpreters or those referring to
Schmitt’s work in their writings (many of whom have
their own axes to grind) to find out what Schmitt said
or thought about such things. Now they can see for
themselves what ‘all the fuss was about’ and why so
many contemporary political thinkers took such a criti-
cal interest in this work.
Clifford Angell Bates, Jr
(University of Warsaw)
POLITICAL THEORY
Counting the Many: The Origins and Limits of
Supermajority Rule by Melissa Schwartzberg.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 264pp.,
£18.99, ISBN 9780521124492
The recent literature on constitutionalism has focused
on judicial review. Melissa Schwartzberg’s two books to
date, by contrast, explore two less noticed yet equally
central features of modern constitutionalism. While
Democracy and Legal Change addressed constitutional
entrenchment, Counting the Many tackles supermajority
rules. These rules are often justified as a remedy to the
pitfalls of simple majority rule. Counting the Many chal-
lenges this common belief.
The first part of the book shows that supermajority
rules historically emerged as a remedy to the pitfalls of
unanimity – rather than of simple majority – rule. The
second part scrutinises the three main reasons
employed to justify supermajority rules: they foster
stability, they promote consensus-reaching and they
protect vulnerable minorities. Schwartzberg contends
that supermajority rules are neither sufficient nor nec-
essary to achieve these goals. Further, they bias deci-
sions in favour of the status quo, thus failing to treat all
citizens’ judgements equally. This, however, does not
lead her to embrace simple, unfettered majoritarianism.
Schwartzberg is committed to the ideal of constitution-
alism.Yet she believes that this ideal is better advanced
by what she terms ‘complex majoritarianism’ – the use
of delays and other devices to improve the judgement
of decision makers while preserving majority rule.
This is historically informed political theory at its
best. Given the ubiquity of supermajority rules in
decision-making bodies, political and otherwise, and
that no book-length treatment of them exists to date, it
is also timely and important. Let me nonetheless flag
two concerns. The first is that parliamentary
supermajorities need not thwart citizens’ epistemic
equality. In representative democracies they can, rather,
protect citizens’ judgements – as enshrined in the con-
stitution – against members of the political elite
abusing their legislative and executive power.
Schwartzberg briefly discusses this.Yet she is too quick
in her treatment of agency problems.
The second concern is related to the first. According
to Schwartzberg, epistemic equality is compatible with
representation provided that representatives are elected
by the people. However, why then should epistemic
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
equality not also be compatible with the people adopt-
ing supermajority requirements to constrain their future
selves? Of course, this only applies intrageneratio-
nally (i.e. when supermajority rules only apply to those
who adopted them). Since generations overlap and new
members continuously join the electorate, this distinc-
tion may seem pointless.Yet, if the provisions subject to
supermajority rules are submitted to mandatory revision
every generation, as Jefferson championed, the problem
of overlapping generations is fixed, and supermajorities
need not trump epistemic equality any longer.
Iñigo González-Ricoy
(Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Civil Disobedience and Deliberative Democracy
by William Smith. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
166pp., £80.00, ISBN 9780415827010
The originality of William Smith’s contribution to the
literature on civil disobedience rests with his inclusion
of themes from deliberative accounts of democracy. By
contrast, as the author acknowledges, the account of
civil disobedience itself is fairly conventional: disobedi-
ence of this sort is a ‘public, non-violent, conscientious
yet political act, contrary to law, carried out to com-
municate opposition to law and policies of govern-
ment’ (p. 3). This is, recognisably, a slightly modified
version of the Rawlsian definition.
The downside of sticking so close to Rawls is that
problematic features of the latter are also inherited:
political agents cannot engage in civil disobedience as
part of an industrial dispute with any private enterprise
(by contrast, Gandhi was clear that such action would
qualify); civil disobedients loose the option of claiming
that their actions are in fact legal; the requirement for
the action to be public seems to require that it be more
than respectful/civil; and finally, civil disobedience
turns out to be communication rather than largely
non-violent coercion or direct action. Smith is sensitive
to these standard objections, but doesn’t regard them as
sufficiently compelling to shift his ground.
What nonetheless makes the volume interesting is
that Smith is, throughout, far more concerned with the
justification of civil disobedience than he is with its
conceptualisation. His aim is to bring together appeals
to the importance of justice and fair terms of social
cooperation between free and equal citizens (Rawlsian
justification) with a concern for democratic deficits,
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
257
which stems from Arendt, Habermas and the delibera-
tive tradition. The book synthesises these two
approaches to justification remarkably well – an indi-
cation perhaps that they were never quite so far apart as
they have sometimes seemed.
What we then get is the view that civil disobedience
is compatible with deliberative respect for others just so
long as a series of conditions are met: prior attempts at
lawful action have failed; activism is coordinated to
avoid broader social disruption; serious injustices are
the target and deliberative inertia is present. The result
is perhaps rather too uncritical of the Rawlsian legacy,
but it is nonetheless a book with many strengths – in
particular, the importance of respect and civility are
given their due.
Tony Milligan
(University of Hertfordshire)
Agonistic Democracy: Constituent Power in the
Era of Globalisation by Mark Wenman. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 348pp.,
£65.00, ISBN 978 1107003729
For several years, Mark Wenman has been one of the
few critical commentators systematically reflecting on
agonistic democracy and its criticism of contemporary
liberalism. Agonistic Democracy addresses the grave over-
sight that while various agonistic democrats have
received a great deal of critical attention, the links
between these individuals, and the strengths and weak-
nesses of their approaches, have not been systematically
examined. However, while this work makes great
strides to address this oversight through strong readings
and the introduction of Wenman’s own model for
thinking democracy, his central criticism of this tradi-
tion ultimately requires further development.
This work combines two projects. On the one hand,
it is an in-depth investigation of four key members of
agonistic democracy (William E. Connolly, James Tully,
Chantal Mouffe and Bonnie Honig), which clarifies the
contours of this group and their relation to contempo-
rary liberal democracy. On the other, it is a critical
analysis of this group that seeks ‘to further develop the
agonistic perspective and in particular to move agonistic
democracy in the direction of a more stringent critique
of liberal democracy’ (p. 4). First, in the more exegetical
project, Wenman successfully argues against the
marginalisation of agonistic democracy by clearly
258
illustrating how these four address central questions in
contemporary political theory. By providing a general
conceptual framework for agonism (Chapter 1), he illus-
trates how they are an iteration of the republican tradi-
tion that rethinks freedom, democracy and the subject in
terms of a positive valuation of pluralistic and demo-
cratic conflict.There are strengths here both analytic and
exegetical.Wenman is a masterful reader of these diverse
figures drawing together their common tropes and iden-
tifying particular weaknesses.
Second, Wenman critically develops agonistic
democracy. Employing an Arendtian framework
(Chapter 2), he identifies their central weakness in their
construal and ultimate limitation of ‘constituent power’
– that is, the democratic ability for a people to rethink
and change their society. For Wenman, agonistic demo-
crats follow mainstream liberal theory in limiting con-
stituent power to augmentation (reform) rather than
revolution. It is this side of his argument that needs
further development. At points, it seems that his main
criticism amounts to the claim that agonistic democrats
are just not revolutionary enough. However, the reason
why that is a flaw is not sufficiently clear. We might
forgive Wenman for this, as this is the first book in
what seems a continuing project in democratic theory
that we should all look forward to.
Clayton Chin
(Queen Mary University of London)
Political Theory after Deleuze by Nathan
Widder. London: Continuum, 2012. 197pp., £17.99,
ISBN 978 1 4411 5088 2
What might be gained from an encounter between the
thought of Gilles Deleuze and established discourses
of political theory? In what ways can the thought of
Deleuze be used to challenge the dominant forms of
post-war liberal political thought? Nathan Widder’s
highly accessible book offers a compelling response to
these questions. The aim of the book is to mobilise
Deleuze’s concept of ‘micropolitics’ and to use it as an
instrument for combat against theoretical forms that are
ontologically and politically superficial, forms that are
incapable of engaging with the complex nexus of power
and desire that exists beneath the level of macropolitical
entities such as states, institutions and subjects. It is this
molecular domain that Widder seeks to expose by means
of a progressive analysis that illuminates Deleuze’s ontol-
POLITICAL THEORY
ogy of sense, his indebtedness to Nietzsche’s notion of
force relations and his theory of machinic desire.
Throughout this text, Deleuze’s thought is thoroughly
explored in relation to the writings of Nietzsche, Lacan
and Foucault. Yet the influence of Marx on Deleuze is
under-represented – a criticism that is especially impor-
tant considering Deleuze’s own admission in an inter-
view with Antonio Negri that he was and remained a
Marxist throughout his career. The decision to take on
capitalism as an object of analysis – a task still largely
eschewed by dominant forms of liberal theory – must be
read in relation to Marx. The strengths of this book,
however, far outweigh this omission.
Overall, Widder has written a succinct yet innovative
guide to the thought of Deleuze. Although designed for
students, this text will serve advanced scholars equally
well since it demands that the reader confront what is
perhaps the most urgent issue for contemporary political
thought: what it means to think and act politically after
the subject. In this sense, Widder’s Deleuze is a
Nietzschean Deleuze who compels us to move beyond a
politics that takes the categories and structures of repre-
sentation, identity and the subject as pre-existent and
predominant. Still, Widder asserts that such categories
and structures are necessary for Deleuze in the
Nietzschean sense that they must first be engaged and
then overcome in order to make possible new self-
formations and political futures. The task of critical
political theory today must begin here with this process
of overcoming, and in this sense, Widder’s book is a
window that opens onto a molecular multiplicity, joining
Deleuze in the calling forth of new earths and peoples.
Michael Laurence
(University of Western Ontario)
Malthus: A Very Short Introduction by Donald
Winch. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
122pp., £7.99, ISBN 978 0 19 967041 3
As a man largely known for a single ‘dismal’ contri-
bution to economic thought, but seldom read in prac-
tice, Thomas R. Malthus is perhaps the most
misunderstood of the early political economists. In this
clear and accessible introduction, Donald Winch
provides a compendious overview of the life and times
of Malthus, and sheds light on his key theories. Beyond
debunking the many common misconceptions of
Malthus’ work, the book is laudable for contextualising
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BOOK REVIEWS
his theories in the political and social milieux of the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as well
as how they were affected by Malthus’ religious and
moral predilections.
Winch’s approach is to provide a chronology of
Malthus’ key theories and texts, and how his ideas
evolved over time in the face of criticism and the
increasingly prevalent positions espoused by his contem-
porary, David Ricardo. The author also addresses key
policy debates of the time, including Malthus’ criticism
of the Poor Laws and support of the Corn Laws.
Given just how confused notions of ‘Malthusianism’
often tend to be, this book ought to find wide read-
ership among both students and practitioners of eco-
nomics and political science. By its nature, the book is
clearly introductory; however, the title does paradoxi-
cally make one wonder how lengthy a medium or even
long introduction to Malthus would be.The book is, at
times, surprisingly detailed, and at around 120 pages in
small font, the reader may find it preferable to digest
the book over a number of sittings.
Perhaps at the expense of brevity, Winch has suc-
ceeded in treating Malthus’ intellectual legacy with the
gravitas it deserves (controversial though it remains).
Malthus’ lesser-known contributions to economic
thought, including his foundational work on diminishing
returns, monopolistic rents, and the study of economic
cycles and disequilibria (notable for its influence on John
Maynard Keynes), are a clear focus for the author.
Winch’s treatment of Malthus’ theories is, however, judi-
cious and well balanced. The reader is simultaneously
invited to consider Malthus’ somewhat intransigent pro-
clivity towards deductive modes of reasoning and his
moralistic approach to the problems of the day – factors
that would ultimately serve to estrange him from
England’s increasingly positivist and secular nineteenth-
century intelligentsia.
With population growth and food availability
remaining major economic and social issues today, it is
little wonder that Malthus’ ideas continue to resonate.
This accessible and thorough clarification of his ideas is
therefore as timely and relevant as ever.
Nicholas J. McMeniman
(Australian Commonwealth Government)
Please note that this review does not represent the views of,
and nor is it associated with, the Australian government.
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
259
International Relations
Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century:
A Middle Way between West and East by
Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels. Cam-
bridge: Polity Press, 2013. 196pp., £16.99, ISBN 978 0
7456 5973 2
More than by a vast ocean, the East and West are
famously divided on issues spanning the economy,
social organisation and political life. These divisions
are manifested in the distinct management systems
that further exaggerate the geographical divide, but
authors Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels argue
that beneath the (mis)conceptions of Eastern and
Western governance styles, a set of ‘best practices’ can
be gleaned from both edges of the Pacific. Their
book, Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A
Middle Way between West and East, asks how govern-
ance in both systems is ailing, how globalisation com-
plicates governance, and whether elements of the
Chinese meritocratic approach and the liberal demo-
cratic approach to governance of the US can be fused
to address the ream of globalisation-triggered chal-
lenges. Invoking China as the representative Eastern
governance system and the US as the example case
for Western governance, the authors set out a three-
fold agenda. First, challenges undermining current
governance systems in both China and the US are
sketched. Second, attention shifts to pinpointing the
particular successes and failures of each system. Third,
key points are drawn together to propose a hybrid
blend of governance that engages the positive points
of each. The remaining chapters connect the authors’
proposal to consulting work executed by the Nicolas
Berggruen Institute.
Historical accounts of each system are a strong point
and enlighten the debates concerning ideal governance
designs – the American Founding Fathers referenced
Confucian ethics when drafting US electoral democ-
racy, for example, and the Chinese system of ‘elevating
the worthy’ seeks to install accountability as executed
by the US via its direct electoral system. Most impor-
tantly, the book’s undertones imply a more direct ques-
tion: what can be done to improve governance?
The authors are bold, suggesting that the key lies in
devolving power and involving citizens in a more
meaningful way. They illustrate this idea by describing
260
a system where elections are local and merit-based
appointments fill various government roles.
Although the book nimbly straddles historical foot-
ings while disregarding oft-reiterated reform ideas, the
concept of ‘governance’ is slightly fumbled by focusing
on a redesign of state governments. This sidelines the
impact of the ‘global’, which is central to the modern
problem-setting. Nonetheless, the subtleties and clever
approach central to Intelligent Governance make it an
enjoyable read for both academics and those keen on
public policy. Perhaps the book’s greatest contribution
is that it triggers a new, creative debate about the
possibilities for improving the management of global
affairs.
Colleen Carroll
(KU Leuven)
Justice and Foreign Policy by Michael Blake.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 160pp.,
£30.00, ISBN 978 0199552009
With his book Justice and Foreign Policy, Michael Blake
does not want to present an ideal theory, but rather a
coherent account that could ‘provide guidance in this
world to political communities and agents that are
already committed to liberalism’ (p. 5). More specifi-
cally, he tries to resolve the conundrum of, on the one
hand, the boundedness of states and, on the other, the
unbound nature of liberalism. How could the idea of
persons as moral equals be reconciled with the exist-
ence of states that all have a powerful, yet distinct
impact on people’s lives?
It is the great merit of Blake’s book to offer a
justification of a states system – which is likely to
continue to exist in the foreseeable future – based on
liberal values, among which autonomy holds pride of
place. This states system is regarded by Blake as a
second-order site of justice – that is, a system in
which the relations among states are important with
regard to the effects they have upon the first-order
site of justice (i.e. domestic justice). It is citizens and
not states who deserve equal moral status. Therefore,
wealthy Western states should closely examine their
policies and actions in view of the effects they have
on other states. It is not the relative wealth between
states that matters directly, but ‘the freedom of a
society to form and pursue a democratic form of
political life’ (p. 81).
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
In other words, relative wealth only becomes impor-
tant when it forms an obstacle to the democratic self-
government of other states, and thus has an impact upon
the autonomy of their citizens which might not fall
below a certain threshold. On the other hand, when
considering interventions in states that clearly could be
characterised as being illiberal, the liberal (wealthy) states
should guide their actions by prudential and principled
reasons of toleration.They should not only be aware of
the ways in which international action in favour of
democracy could be counter-productive, but they
should also tolerate mistaken views of liberal equality.
What emerges are the contours of a theory of justice and
foreign policy that tries both to reach the highly valued
principles of liberalism and give practical guidance in
the current world. It is precisely this which makes Justice
and Foreign Policy such an important book, setting high
standards for our thinking about foreign policy.
Erik De Bom
(KU Leuven)
Economic Statecraft and Foreign Policy: Sanc-
tions, Incentives and Target State Calculations by
Jean-Marc F. Blanchard and Norrin M. Ripsman.
Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. 266pp., £80.00, ISBN
9780415629935
Blanchard and Ripsman’s book is a welcome contri-
bution to the study of economic statecraft and foreign
policy. The authors’ ambition is already shown in the
first pages, where they argue that economic sanctions
and incentives are driven by the same dynamics and
thus need to be analysed within a unique theoretical
framework. In this vein, they develop a comprehensive
and convincing approach to explain the circumstances
under which economic statecraft (‘carrots or sticks’)
will be more likely to succeed. According to the
authors, two indicators are important to explain the
effectiveness of economic statecraft in changing a
target’s behaviour: the threat that a sender’s economic
statecraft imposes on the target’s strategic interests
(TSI) and the stateness of the target.
The first refers to the strategic costs that a target
faces if it decides to comply with the sender (TSI-C)
or if it decides to resist its pressure (TSI-N). If com-
pliance is too costly, then it is unlikely that economic
pressure will be successful. Similarly, if the costs of not
complying are low, then external pressure will also be
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
ineffective. However, if the cost of not complying is
higher than that of acquiescing, then economic state-
craft should be successful.
The second indicator is even more decisive in deter-
mining the effectiveness of these measures. Stateness is a
composite index that measures a state’s margin of
manoeuvre vis-à-vis its society when faced with exter-
nal pressures to alter its policy. The importance of this
indicator becomes clear when it is disaggregated into
its three components: ‘autonomy’ (a state’s ‘structural
capacity’ to carry out policies when faced with internal
constraints), ‘capacity’ (the level of resources available to
the state to perform its functions) and ‘legitimacy’ (the
level of domestic recognition to the state’s authority).
The level of stateness will thus determine whether a
target state is able to stick to its preferred policy or not,
as it will allow it to resist the sender’s pressure (if it
chooses not to comply) or ignore the domestic pressure
(if it decides to comply with the sender).
The authors’ claims are then tested against a carefully
selected set of case studies, where the importance of the
rewards/sanctions and the role of the target’s domestic
institutions is demonstrated. Finally, the relevance of
their model is shown in its ability to capture the
dynamics that the use of economic statecraft unleashes
in the target state and, especially, the ways in which it
modifies a target’s stateness over time. This noteworthy
contribution further underscores the need to pay atten-
tion to the microfoundations of economic statecraft.
Borja Guijarro-Usobiaga
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
International Security: A Very Short Introduction
by Christopher S. Browning. Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2013. 152pp., £6.39, ISBN 9780199668533
This concise book does a remarkable job of capturing
the changing concept of ‘international security’, explain-
ing what traditional and contemporary security concerns
are and highlighting the challenges in defending inter-
national security in the post-9/11 world. The book is
divided into two parts, with the first focusing on more
traditional security concerns of war, peace and interna-
tional order and the second homing in on key debates
central to the expansion of the international security
agenda, such as human security and development,
resources, climate change, and the delicate balance
between security and liberty.The book also draws atten-
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
261
tion to the inherent limitations of the structure of the
international system in tackling many contemporary
security issues and suggests that ‘sometimes the problem
may lie in the very nature of the system itself ’ (p. 3).
More elusive than the concept itself is how to achieve
international security. Christopher Browning proposes
that security can be approached in both competitive and
cooperative terms. In addition to the traditional security
provider – the state – alternative security providers are
being identified, including international and regional
organisations, NGOs, social movements and private
security contractors (p. 8). The UN, as the world’s
primary organisation of collective security, has contrib-
uted much to international peace and security through
its various peace-keeping missions and other pro-
grammes. The book addresses the thorny issue of sover-
eignty versus humanitarian intervention. The question
arises as to what the UN should do in situations when
principles of non-intervention and human rights appear
to conflict such as in Rwanda or Kosovo. As Browning
mentions, disagreements regarding the responsibility to
protect (R2P) principle remain, although it was
endorsed by the UN in 2005 (p. 45).
Security is closely related to development. Human
security is not just about ‘freedom from fear’ but also
‘freedom from want’. Indeed, efforts such as the UN
Millennium Development Goals are designed to
achieve both human security and development. Differ-
ent from past wars that were often caused by territorial
or ideological disputes, competition for scarce resources
may become a new source of conflict as more and
more countries consider economic development to be
the foundation of human security.
The book succinctly covers key issues, debates and
challenges in international security. It is highly recom-
mended for students of IR and general readers.
Zhiqun Zhu
(Bucknell University, Pennsylvania)
External Intervention and the Politics of State
Formation: China, Indonesia and Thailand, 1893–
1952 by Ja Ian Chong. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2012. 304pp., £62.00, ISBN 978
1107013759
By examining the relationship between the processes of
external intervention and state formation, this study
tries to answer an overlooked puzzle in the scholarship
262
of IR and comparative politics: ‘Why and how did
polities outside the modern European states system
come to organise themselves along the lines of the
sovereign state by the mid twentieth century?’ (p. 1).
With the aim of systematically exploring the effects of
external intervention on governance institutions and
political authority, the author investigates three cases
(China, Indonesia and Thailand) that experienced
common features of external intervention and weak
polities from the late nineteenth century to the mid-
twentieth century. The study argues that intervention
by foreign actors in the affairs of these fragile polities
enhanced their own access to local resources and/or
denied their competitors access to the same resources.
The purpose is to demonstrate that competition among
the actors intervening in weak polities can eventually
lead to the development of sovereign statehood among
those polities at the periphery of the international states
system through fostering exclusive territorial control,
political centralisation and external autonomy.
With China as the main case study, and Thailand and
Indonesia as secondary studies, the proposed theoretical
explanations are confirmed. From the 1890s through to
the early 1920s, competition between rival foreign
powers (i.e. Britain, the US, Japan, Russia, Germany
and France) contributed to the feudalisation of the
Chinese polity; this in turn led to the preservation of
high levels of external autonomy and moderate terri-
torial exclusivity as a result of ‘the differences in foreign
expectations about the opportunity cost of intervening
in China, matched by the concurrent desire to avoid a
major power over war China’ (p. 111). The study’s
well-framed focus on the interveners’ strategies shows
how similar dynamics enabled the local forces in China
to achieve political centralisation from 1938 to 1952.
The study’s scope and analyses keep it mainly iso-
lated from other worldwide interactions that have taken
place among the intervening actors and the wider
community of states throughout the period in question
through multilateral agreements and the establishment
of international institutions (e.g. the League of Nations
and the UN). This not only opens space for ample
state-centric counter-arguments with regard to the
nature/effects of the external powers’ involvement, but
it also prevents the author from considering the impact
of ideational variables other than nationalism on the
configuration of state sovereignty in those polities as far
as externally promoted ideological orientations of the
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
local state-makers and their rivals (would-be state-
makers) are concerned.
Ismail Erdem
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before
It is Too Late by Joseph Cirincione. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2013. 266pp., £18.95,
ISBN 9780231164047
Joseph Cirincione has divided his book Nuc lear
Nightmares into three parts: ‘Policy’, ‘Nightmares’ and
‘Solutions’. In the first part, Cirincione strategically por-
trays the three cases of ‘Promise’, ‘Legacy’ and ‘Pivot’,
with reference to the strategic vision of the leaders of
the world. The second part is a statistics delight for
people interested in the same, whether students, research-
ers, policy makers or political leaders. Finally, the third
part refers to the global threat of nuclear weapons as a
classic big-cube problem (p. 176) where the solution to
this threat lies in the hands of masses. The common
thread throughout the book is the high level of risk in
nuclear weapons being used by accident or by design,
which is an ongoing nightmare. With the Cold War
ending but more nations wanting to get into the nuclear
weapons club, the author sounds the alarm on the global
arms race. He provides a wealth of material on currently
nuclear-armed nations and their 17,000-strong stockpile,
assessing the rapid spread of the weapons, the cost of the
arsenals and the damage they could wreak, with a keen
emphasis on ‘nuclear terrorism’. The frightening assess-
ment by Cirincione is further supported by a govern-
ment document of 32 nuclear weapon accidents that
occurred between 1950 and 1980 – including six bombs
‘that were lost and never recovered’.
The author is a clear-eyed, straight-talking, highly
influential sage on the spread of nuclear weaponry and
the imperative for the US to lead the global effort in
blunting this existential danger to the planet. He
assesses the chances for progress in arms control
between Presidents Obama and Putin, analyses the
latest ominous developments in Iran, Pakistan and
North Korea, lays out practical steps for American
policy, and recommends ways for citizens to engage in
the cause of non-proliferation. The only issue which
pricks throughout the book is the tilt towards Ameri-
can policies and the evident White Man’s Burden! The
great thing about the author is that he is somehow able
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
to maintain an appropriate balance between accurately
portraying the risks of the nuclear age and the positive
ways we can overcome them. He ends on a positive
note.
Priyamvada Mishra
(Symbiosis Law School, Noida, India)
Legions of Peace: UN Peacekeepers from the
Global South by Philip Cunliffe. London: C. Hurst,
2013. 256pp., £40.00, ISBN 9781849042901
Analysing the international scenario, there is little
doubt that peace-keeping operations, especially those
led by the UN, represent a fundamental element. Such
centrality makes its critical examination an essential
task. This is precisely what Philip Cunliffe successfully
accomplishes in Legions of Peace. Rather than pursuing
a mere technical analysis of such a crucial element,
Cunliffe critically problematises the troubling fact that
UN peace-keeping is the most widely tolerated use of
force in current international affairs.
In order to develop his timely analysis, Cunliffe
attentively directs his reflection to the fact that most
troop contributors of this enterprise come from the
poorer and weaker countries of the global South. In
essence, his analysis elucidates the disturbing reality that
there is an uneven international division of labour in
regard to building peace internationally. His central
argument is that ‘UN peacekeeping enables wealthy
and powerful states to suppress and contain conflict
across the unruly periphery of the international order
without the encumbrance of open-ended political and
military commitments’ (p. 2). Most importantly, in his
view, this is a way for states from the global North to
displace political risks to the global South while reduc-
ing the global cost of their hegemony. In addition to an
introductory chapter, where Cunliffe delineates his
argument and object of analysis, the book is structured
into three parts.
In Part I, the author examines the role that peace-
keeping performs in the international order. Hence,
while in Chapter 2 Cunliffe analyses the ‘contradictions
and pathologies’ (p. 26) of peace-keeping at the ideo-
logical and institutional levels, Chapter 3 portrays it ‘as
the highest stage of a long tradition of liberal imperi-
alism’, reframing it as part of the ‘historic tradition of
imperial security’ (p. 27). In Part II, Cunliffe focuses on
the troop contributors. While Chapter 4 sheds light on
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
263
the fact that peace-keeping performed by Southern
countries has features of the colonial armies of the
European imperial past, Chapter 5 problematises them
as the ‘Askaris’ and ‘Sepoys’, agents of the imperial
security, of the current international order. Finally, Part
III (Chapters 6 and 7) analyses how UN peace-keeping
institutions are the ‘last refuge of empire’ (p. 217).
Nowadays, it is not uncommon to have deep hier-
archical relations being operationalised through the veil
of multilateralism. Cunliffe’s stimulating contribution
effectively elucidates this within a fundamental pillar of
the current international order: the construction of
peace.
Ramon Blanco
(Federal University of Latin-American Integration – UNILA)
Modern War: A Very Short Introduction by
Richard English. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2013. 132pp., £7.99, ISBN 978 0 19 960789 1
This book appears in the well-established Oxford Uni-
versity Press ‘Very Short Introduction’ series, and at 119
pages of text (including a dozen illustrations), the ‘very
short’ description is accurate. It is aimed both at readers
wishing to know more about a particular subject and
also at those familiar with it who might appreciate a
fresh and thought-provoking overview that can be read
in a few hours. For both audiences, what this book
achieves would be remarkable in one several times its
length.
It is structured around four key issues: the definition
of modern war; its causes (covering nationalism, the
state, empire, religion and economics, then considering
why individuals fight, and finally examining why wars
have ended); the experience of war (under the headings
of ‘horror’ – the main focus – as well as ‘boredom’,
‘exhilaration’ and ‘opportunity’); and its legacies
(a broad chapter, including remembering and
misremembering, and the ethical dimension). Finally, a
short conclusion diagnoses problems with the existing
literature and offers suggestions for further research.
The author defines ‘modern war’ as beginning with
the French Revolution, the emergence of modern
nationalism and the resulting creation of the nation
state. This approach reflects Richard English’s back-
ground as a political historian – which was a fine
choice by the publisher, providing as it does a degree of
healthy immunity to the common tendency to over-
264
emphasise the contemporary at the expense of deeper
continuities. That said, the book by no means neglects
cases other than interstate war, noting that the great
majority of recent conflicts have been internal.The one
instance of the book arguably losing perspective is the
twenty pages – over one-sixth of its length – devoted
to the ‘War on Terror’, which seems rather more than it
deserves; yet this minor authorial self-indulgence can
be forgiven in the light of the wider analysis of
counter-terrorism that it offers.
Each chapter is clearly presented, considering a wide
range of factors (as well as their interaction) and per-
spectives. Inevitably in a work of this length, individual
themes are not as deeply developed as some might
wish, but the intent of the book is avowedly introduc-
tory and there is a very helpful section of references for
those who wish to follow up a particular issue. The
book as a whole is notable for the careful thought and
sound judgement that are on display, with the result
that it does not at all feel like a superficial skim over the
material.
Tim Benbow
(King’s College London/UK Defence Academy)
Atomic Assistance: How ‘Atoms For Peace’
Progams Cause Nuclear Insecurity by Matthew
Fuhrmann. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
2012. 319pp., £18.50, ISBN 978 0 8014 7811 6
Matthew Fuhrmann’s book addresses three key ques-
tions: Why do nuclear suppliers provide peaceful
nuclear assistance to other countries? Does powerful
nuclear assistance raise the likelihood of nuclear
weapons proliferation? Have international institutions
influenced the nuclear marketplace and effectively
separated the peaceful and military uses of the atom?
The author provides probabilistic assessments to pre-
sumptions and stresses that a desire to manage politico-
strategic relationships is a powerful motive for
providing aid. Moreover, he shows that while nuclear
suppliers may reap politico-strategic benefits, they also
inadvertently contribute to the spread of weapons.
Finally, he moves on to say that international institu-
tions cannot prevent states from behaving as power
maximisers.
The strategic value of Peaceful Nuclear Assistance
lies in strengthening recipient countries, strengthening
bilateral relationships, and the portrayal of allies and
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
adversaries. The author initially constructs a set of
hypotheses and tests the causal processes driving his
theory through the experiences of India, Iran and
Libya. Furthermore, because his prediction does not
match that of the cases in various datasets, the author
also analyses nine puzzling cases: US/Indonesia, Brazil/
Iraq, the UK/South Korea, Canada/Romania, France/
Iraq, Germany/Brazil, India/Vietnam, Italy/Iraq and
the USSR/Yugoslavia. Furhmann also explores
decision-making processes in countries such as Japan,
North Korea, Pakistan, South Africa and Syria to deter-
mine why states began (or did not begin) nuclear
weapons programmes and why some programmes suc-
ceeded while others failed. He concludes that, on
average, countries receiving higher levels of peaceful
nuclear assistance are more likely to pursue and acquire
the bomb – especially if they experience an interna-
tional crisis after receiving aid.
The author initiated this book to explore how inter-
national commerce enabled states to augment their
military capabilities. He builds upon the basic premise
that countries legally purchased sub-components on
the open market and built weapon systems indig-
enously. Matthew Fuhrmann has succeeded in provid-
ing enough convincing empirical data to substantiate
the differences in theory and practice, as he moves on
to justify the above-mentioned propositions. The book
is a delight as it provides numerous insights into the
empirical analysis of data. The author has analysed the
comprehensive system of demand and supply of atomic
assistance very well. This book is worth reading for
everyone who wishes to analyse the never-ending cycle
of nuclear proliferation. It provides a comprehensive
analysis in simple, clear and easy language with suitable
statistical data to support the findings.
Priyamvada Mishra
(Symbiosis Law School, Noida, India)
Civil Society and Global Poverty: Hegemony,
Inclusivity, Legitimacy by Clive Gabay. Abingdon:
Routledge, 2012. 178pp., £80.00, ISBN
9780415520652
The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) is
the self-proclaimed largest civil society movement in
the world with the objective of ending poverty. Clive
Gabay’s Civil Society and Global Poverty employs a theo-
retically nuanced approach to demonstrate that, on
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
their own, cosmopolitan and radical alter-globalisation
theories can only moderately elucidate GCAP’s encap-
sulation of hegemony, inclusion and legitimacy in India
and Malawi. To illustrate the inconsistencies present in
normative discourses about the relationality between
civil society and state-based powers, GCAP’s opposi-
tional nature to and simultaneous dependency on
hegemonic structures (such as the UN’s Millennium
Campaign) are regularly drawn upon. Similarly, the
degree to which GCAP allows for those in extreme
poverty to provide the definitive narrative about living
in poverty is argued to be undermined by the lack of
campaign management expertise of those in poverty.
This, according to Gabay, leads to the systemic exclu-
sion of the very ones for whom GCAP exists. Further,
garnering legitimacy from supposedly existing as a
network of localised nodes, GCAP is claimed to be
problematically absent from the self-characterisations of
many constituent organisations.
Therefore, deliberately refraining from choosing sides
in cosmopolitan, governmentality and alter-
globalisation debates results in Gabay being able to
fluidly illustrate how ideas, including ‘global civil
society’, ‘global justice movement’ and ‘transnational
advocacy networks’ advanced by leading scholars such
as Keane, Cohen and Rai, and Keck and Sikkink, can
contain as well as omit important realities about actors
such as GCAP. However, as much as these insights
provide empirical substance to the theoretical discus-
sions within the field of global civil society by initiating
the investigation of GCAP, Civil Society and Global
Poverty does not extend far beyond existent perspec-
tives, such as Colas’ viewing of global civil society as a
‘process of creative destruction’,1 that already blur the
boundaries between IR theories.
The book’s primary significance, then, lies in its
judicious and novel examination of GCAP. Indeed,
beyond the scope of this book, investigating the
remaining 113 of the 115 national nodes could
provide depth and breadth to Gabay’s findings. India
and Malawi, nevertheless, provide fertile ground
upon which to extend discourse on forms of knowl-
edge production in International Development.
Resultantly, Civil Society and Global Poverty has the
potential to either provoke further thought by those
questioning normative views of global civil society
organisations or frustrate those searching for rigid
theories.
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
265
Note
1 Alejandro Colas (2005) ‘Global Civil Society: Analytical
Category or Normative Concept’ in G. Baker and D.
Chandler (eds.), Global Civil Society: Contested Futures.
Abingdon: Routledge, p. 22.
Brian Davis
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
The Poverty of Capitalism: Economic Meltdown
and the Struggle for What Comes Next by John
Hilary. London: Pluto Press, 2013. 223pp., £12.99,
ISBN 9780745333304
John Hilary’s book provides a striking and compre-
hensive account of the social imbalances caused by
transnational capitalism all over the world. Not only
does the author reveal the true nature of corporate
power, but he also points to the avenues beyond capi-
talism that would lead to a more equitable and sus-
tainable society.
Acting as Executive Director of War on Want, Hilary
knows a good deal about the issues of global poverty,
inequality and injustice, and this is what his book is
about. Instead of just looking at the syndromes,
however, the author points to the root cause of the
accumulating economic, social and ecological disrup-
tions. His main argument is that excessive freedom of
capital, backed up by the enforcing power of the state,
‘offers crisis and poverty to millions of people across
the world’ (p. 1). The author vividly demonstrates via
the case studies of the extractive industries, the gar-
ments sector and the global food regime that the sov-
ereignty of the state has yielded to the sovereignty of
the market, and how the role of the state per se has
evolved from social redistribution to alleviating the
expansion of transnational capital. By placing his nar-
rative in such developing regions as Africa, Asia and
Latin America, Hilary exposes a wide range of situa-
tions of ‘incomparable stress and insecurity’ (p. 5) as a
result of corporate activities, as well as various paths of
resistance against the power of capital. The author
eventually advocates for alternative models beyond cor-
porate globalisation that are based on the principles of
popular sovereignty, common ownership and social
production.
The Poverty of Capitalism stands out among other
books that have challenged the foundations of transna-
tional capital. For one thing, it presents persuasive
empirical evidence of the alarming consequences of
266
capital operations and contains extensive references for
further study. For another, Hilary reveals the controver-
sial role of international organisations and financial
institutions in legitimising corporate power. In addi-
tion, the myth of corporate social responsibility is bril-
liantly exposed. All these points make The Poverty of
Capitalism a true factbook of corporate capitalism, in
contrast to the popular corporate conspiracy theories.
Finally, while the book can be placed within a broader
debate on the conflict between the fading nation states
and the newly emerging corporation states, its language
is not too scientific, yet logical and concise. The piece
is therefore suitable for reading by academics, civil
activists and a wider audience.
Alexander Svitych
(Central European University)
The Scourge of Genocide: Essays and Reflec-
tions by Adam Jones. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
420pp., £80.00, ISBN 9780415690539
Adam Jones is the veritable dean of genocide studies,
having authored one of the leading textbooks on the
subject (Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction, second
edition, 2010) as well as authoring and editing numer-
ous other important volumes and articles. His latest
offering, The Scourge of Genocide, collects together a
variety of academic articles and book chapters, jour-
nalistic pieces and book reviews that he has published
from the late 1980s down to 2012. Despite the range of
materials gathered herein, The Scourge of Genocide does
not come across like a ‘greatest hits’ collection, with
random pieces thrown together to sell another book,
but instead constitutes an extended meditation on
world atrocity by one of the great thinkers in the field.
The book is divided into sections on theory and
practice. In the first, Jones surveys such philosophical
issues as debates on the labels of genocide versus crimes
against humanity, genocide as structural and poli-
tical violence, gender and conflict (the author’s own
speciality), subaltern violence, the genocidal continuum,
and the role of death squads and other para-institutional
actors. For students, especially, these chapters easily serve
as an expansion of issues raised in Jones’s introductory
text. The second half of the book includes several book
reviews, carefully chosen for how they relate to other
concepts presented, as well as some journalistic pieces
covering violence in Colombia and Palestine/Israel or
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
American actions in Iraq and the so-called ‘War on
Terror’. These may seem diversions from the subject at
hand, but if there is one thing that Jones does well, it is
to illustrate how genocide exists along a continuum. As
he notes, he wants to encourage ‘students and other
readers to look critically, not only at their own societies,
but at their own presumptions and prejudices; their own
proto-genocidal leanings’ (p. 32).
Despite the weight of the subject, The Scourge of
Genocide proves perfectly engaging, occasionally even
peppered with a bit of humour, evident especially in
the chapter ‘Encompassing Genocide’, wherein Jones
details his efforts to put together his comprehensive
introduction of the subject (and how he debated with
his publisher the use of typical skull pictures for a
cover). Moreover, the book is richly illustrated with
photographs, and Jones cites not just scholarly texts and
official reports but also rap lyrics and novels in making
his points. The result is a book accessible to scholars
and students alike, a rare page-turner that informs and
enlightens, but never overwhelms.
Guy Lancaster
(Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture)
Conflict, War and Peace: An Introduction to Sci-
entific Research by Sara B. McLaughlin Mitchell
and John A. Vasquez (eds). London: Sage, 2013.
440pp., £44.99, ISBN 978 1452244495
As a textbook, Conflict, War and Peace rests on a clear
assumption that ‘while the quantitative study of conflict
has made significant progress in the past few decades,
this approach and knowledge have not adequately
found their way into undergraduate education’ (p. xiii).
McLaughlin Mitchell and Vasquez do not ask whether
conflict research is scientific, and if so, why and how we
know it. The focus is rather on addressing the question
of ‘How is this research disseminated in the classroom?’,
and more precisely, how we can best convey the com-
plexity of our elaborate studies on war and conflict in
a comprehensive way without sacrificing intellectual
rigour. In doing so, this book is a thorough assessment of
the steps that scientific research has taken, as well as an
excellent survey of the paucity of scientific education.
Because this textbook reprints some of the core
readings and ground-breaking studies in conflict
research over the last two decades, this review is not
about the content of the book’s chapters. Space
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
considerations do not allow for a proper consideration
of topics such as dyads, alliances, rivalry, democratic
peace, economic interdependence, power preponder-
ance or any of the various traditions of scientific
research they fall within. Rather, the review takes the
form of a note that explores the novelty of taking a
walk through the scientific study of war for the sake of
the student of IR.
What the reader should notice is the open invitation
to the world of scientific conflict research. This is
accompanied by the willingness to promote knowledge
– one suspects a new facet in the cumulation of knowl-
edge debate – and the patience to go step by step
through the steps of war. The examined contributions
by names such as Stuart Bremer, Paul F. Diehl, John A.
Vasquez, Bruce Russet, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and
Randolph M. Siverson are followed by a methodologi-
cal note that explains with clarity and precision the
contribution to knowledge and the methods used. The
originality consists in the process of breaking down
what researchers take for granted and adapting it to the
undergraduate level of understanding. Against this
background, the book addresses a missing link in the
module and course handbooks and takes the form of a
curated set of lessons in research methods aimed to
‘highlight some of the key research studies on interstate
conflict’ (p. xv).
Vladimir Rauta
(University of Nottingham)
Counter-Terrorism and State Political Violence:
The ‘War on Terror’ as Terror by Scott Poynting
and David Whyte (eds). Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
264pp., £24.95, ISBN 9780415748094
Poynting and Whyte’s edited collection provides a criti-
cal studies approach to counter-terrorism policies and
institutions. The objective of this collection is to dem-
onstrate the ways in which both counter-terrorism
policies and traditional studies of counter-terrorism
overlook the political dynamics and ethical implications
of their subject. According to the authors, the branding
of non-state groups’ use of political violence as ‘terror-
ism’ and state violence as ‘counter-terrorism’ serves the
political objectives of the state by discrediting the
opposition while legitimising state violence.
This collection has case studies that cover a wide
variety of states and conflicts, including British, Sri
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
267
Lankan, Israeli, Colombian, American and Indonesian
counter-terrorism. There are also a number of con-
ceptual chapters – including contributions by the
editors, Noam Chomsky and John Pilger – which
advance the argument of the collection without focus-
ing on a single state or conflict, as well as one chapter
by Jeremy Keenan that looks at the American and
European conflict with al-Qa’eda as a whole. Anyone
interested in traditional or critical approaches to secu-
rity, terrorism and IR will find the arguments
advanced in this collection worth consideration.
Many of this collection’s chapters include the addi-
tional objective of reconceptualising state counter-
terrorism as ‘state terrorism’. The critique of the
concept of ‘terrorism’ as being value-laden suggests a
particular epistemological commitment: a research
ethos that prides the reflexive and carefully delineated
application of highly politicised terminology. There are
moments in this collection where the term ‘state ter-
rorism’ is deployed without a clear indication by the
author as to what action by the state necessarily leads
them to the use of that definition. Ken Booth1 has
advanced a Gandhian approach of adapting one’s means
to fit the ideals of one’s objectives within critical secu-
rity studies. A similar ethos could be applied to
research, whereby criticism of value-laden concepts
suggests the need to be reflexive when using similar
concepts in the future.
Despite this drawback, each contribution to this
collection provides convincing evidence for state
counter-terrorism’s complicity in perpetuating vio-
lence, human rights violations, illegal practices or
disproportionality. The evidence put forth in many of
these chapters includes official statements, policy
documents and interviews. At a minimum, the
primary sources referenced throughout this collection
present clear evidence to the reader that counter-
terrorism is not an ethically neutral and reactionary
response on the part of the state, and that the political
and ethical dimensions of these policies require con-
tinued investigation.
Note
1 Ken Booth (ed.) (2005) Critical Security Studies and World
Politics. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Michael E. Newell
(Syracuse University)
268
Changing Norms through Actions: The Evolu-
tion of Sovereignty by Jennifer M. Ramos.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 200pp.,
£17.99, ISBN 978 0 19 992486 8
This study intends to develop and test a theory that
endeavours to answer the question of how understand-
ings of international norms (particularly the norm of
absolute sovereignty) change through states’ actions.
Based on a social psychological approach, the author
advances the assumption that ‘the concept of sover-
eignty is moving toward one in which states that are
unable to or unwilling to fulfill their domestic and
international obligations are forced to relinquish certain
sovereign responsibilities to the international commu-
nity’ (p. 3). That is to say, the author argues, ‘states risk
[military] intervention by other states if they do not
comply with generally accepted norms’ (p. 3). To dem-
onstrate how the norm of sovereignty changed in the
post-Cold War period through military interventions,
the study analyses the content of UN Security Council
speeches by its five permanent members (the US,
Russia, China, the UK and France) in three different
policy areas and cases: global terrorism (Afghanistan
2001), massive violations of human rights (Somalia
1992) and the development of weapons of mass
destruction (Iraq 2003). The empirical investigation of
cases largely confirms the proposed thesis, which is that
the notion of absolute sovereignty evolves into contin-
gent sovereignty.
The study’s theoretical focus on the influence of
states’ actions on the normative environment opens up
a new analytical path in the study of military interven-
tion and norms formation in international relations.
More importantly, through insights from cognitive dis-
sonance, the author elegantly introduces a new per-
spective to a long-debated issue in the IR discipline:
the interplay of agency and structure. This approach
enables the author to explain how, in some cases, inter-
vener and non-intervener states’ negative responses to
attempts at change (mainly as a result of state culpabil-
ity and self-interest) do contribute to the evolution of
a normative environment.
The study’s state-centric scope and its excessive
emphasis on the actions/interactions among main state
actors lead it to dismiss the material and ideational
causes of the interventions at local and regional levels.
Isolating the study’s outlook from these political causes
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
enables the author to successfully construct a system-
level and policy-relevant analysis on the evolution of
the absolute sovereignty norm. But, by doing so, the
study overlooks the roles of the permanent members of
the Security Council and their internal politics in the
configuration of the political processes and their nor-
mative outcomes. However, the book’s social psycho-
logical perspective helps students of IR to observe the
centrality/evolution of the sovereignty norm in various
domestic and international political contexts.
Ismail Erdem
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
Liberal Barbarism: The European Destruction of
the Palace of the Emperor of China by Erik
Ringmar. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
268pp., £62.50, ISBN 9781137268907
During October 1860, British and French troops
looted Yuanmingyuan at the outskirts of Beijing. The
sacking of what is commonly known in the Western
World as the Summer Palace of the Chinese Emperor
marked the dreadful culmination of the North China
Campaign in which European states aimed to enforce
trade relations with China and it is the backdrop to
Erik Ringmar’s remarkable book: Liberal Barbarism.
Based upon extensive archival research, Ringmar pro-
vides a compelling explanation for a paradox. The
destruction of the imperial summer palace was nothing
less than a barbaric act that was committed by forces
that set out to China in order to spread the European
idea of ‘civilisation’. What makes Ringmar’s book
remarkable in particular, however, is his conceptual
framework.
Applying the concept of ‘performance’, Ringmar
demonstrates the intercultural misunderstandings and
differences between China and Europe during the
nineteenth century, which helps to understand the
rising tensions between them. Performances rest on
prescribed scripts and are deliberately undertaken by
actors on a public stage viewed by different audiences
in order ‘to demonstrate, explain, or teach something’
(p. 135) to them. The destruction of Yuanmingyuan
can thus be seen as a performance by British and
French troops to satisfy a European audience that was
still outraged by the previous kidnapping and eventual
killing of a group of Europeans. Among them had also
been Thomas Bowlby, the correspondent of The Times.
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
However, it was also a performance for a Chinese
audience, as it intended to demonstrate to the Chinese
court and people that Europe had surpassed China
militarily, technologically and economically and
become the new centre of the world. Previously, China
had considered itself as the ‘Middle Kingdom’, as its
Sino-centric system rested on the leadership of China.
However, unlike the Westphalian system of nation
states, the Sino-centric system was not territorially
focused. Hence, the Chinese imperial court did not
exert geographical control over its entire sphere of
influence, but it was relational, and the kowtow was a
symbolic way to reassure China’s centrality in this
system.
Studying these performances inscribed in the bar-
baric act committed by European forces helps
Ringmar to transcend the Westphalian system as he
argues for appreciating the benefits of other systems
that do not promote conflict, but strengthen the
importance of cooperation. Therefore, non-violent
performances as suggested in the Sino-centric system
might indeed be more suitable for twenty-first-
century politics.
Felix Rösch
(Coventry University)
Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding on the
Ground:Victims and Ex-Combatants by Chandra
Sriram, Jemima Garcia-Godos, Johanna Herman
and Olga Martin-Ortega (eds). Abingdon:
Routledge, 2013. 312pp., £24.99, ISBN 978 0 415
65586 6
Transitional justice and peace-building initiatives often
coexist in the same post-conflict environments. This
book sets out to examine the area of overlap between
these two practices. In particular, the volume focuses
on the interface between approaches to transitional
justice, which place victims at their centre, and pro-
grammes for the disarmament, demobilisation and
reintegration (DDR) of combatants within peace-
building projects.
The book is divided into two parts.The first features
thematic contributions exploring the general links
between victim-centred approaches to transitional
justice and DDR.These chapters discuss the role of the
UN Peacebuilding Commission, the relationship
between transitional justice and peace-building in
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
269
ongoing conflicts, the potential for integrating DDR
and transitional justice, and the interaction between
traditional justice practices and transitional justice. The
second part presents a series of case studies in which
both transitional justice and peace-building initiatives
were implemented, including Cambodia, Lebanon,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Liberia,
Uganda, Colombia and Kenya.
This volume evidences the shift in focus of transi-
tional justice from processes of democratisation after
authoritarianism to post-conflict peace-building. Thus,
instead of dealing with the traditional trade-off
between the normative claims of justice and the prag-
matic demands of the political transition, it tackles the
conflict between the normative demands of victims and
the pragmatic demands of reintegrating combatants.
The logic is the same: How does one reconcile nor-
mative aspirations with practical realities?
The individual contributions in this volume are
concise and engaging. They also seek to find institu-
tional and practical answers to the difficulties posed by
implementing transitional justice and peace-building
initiatives simultaneously. They grapple with issues of
coordination and integration as well as timing and
sequencing and suggest that better communication is
needed between the two areas. However, some of the
chapters do not concentrate specifically on the rela-
tionship between victim-centred justice and DDR and,
instead, address either peace-building or transitional
justice in general. Moreover, while the case studies
provide a useful juxtaposed description of transitional
justice and DDR initiatives, they stop short of provid-
ing in-depth analysis of their interaction. Nonetheless,
the conclusion does offer helpful policy advice. Transi-
tional Justice and Peacebuilding on the Ground will be of
great value for scholars and practitioners with an inter-
est in the role of transitional justice in wider peace-
building projects.
Marcos Zunino
(University of Cambridge)
We welcome short reviews of books in all areas of
politics and international relations. For guidelines
on submitting reviews, and to see an up-to-date
listing of books available for review, please visit
http://www.politicalstudiesreview.org/.
270
Comparative Politics
Feminist Activism, Women’s Rights and Legal
Reform by Mulki Al-Sharmani (ed.). London: Zed
Books, 2013. 246pp., £19.99, ISBN 9781780329628
What factors facilitate, thwart or deter the reform efforts
of feminist activism in the legislative sphere, and to
what extent does legal change act as a medium for
encouraging gender equality? These are the two issues
this edited volume addresses through various field-based
studies drawn from diverse geographical and socio-
political milieux. While it concentrates essentially on
family law and domestic violence legislation, it is divided
into two broad categories. The first five sections
examine the identities, arguments and mobilisation
tactics utilised by participants in debates surrounding
proposed family law reforms in Palestine, Bangladesh,
Yemen, Egypt and Iran, as well as the political context
that shaped the character of these discussions.
Two key findings emerge from these studies. First,
the diversity in meaning of important concepts such as
‘religion’, ‘secularism’, ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ point
at the inadequacy of understanding contestations on
gender-sensitive reforms through simple, though oft-
used dichotomies. Second, these debates are not only
driven by conflicting standpoints on women’s positions
in society, but shaped by larger political and ideological
divisions on the nature and identity of the state.
In the final three chapters of the book, the relevance
of the state comes to the fore as authors consider the
extent to which women in Brazil, Ghana and Morocco
benefit from utilising state institutions that seek to
implement and oversee novel reforms.These three cases
stress the ambiguous outcomes of this engagement for
women, driven by social attitudes, legal practices
and/or a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the state
about such measures.
Although this collection successfully demonstrates the
diversity of outcomes and experiences that have resulted
from feminist mobilisation, it would have benefited from
a clearer synthesis of the processes and mechanisms that
have led to favourable legal outcomes. Contributors
could have drawn from social movement studies to illus-
trate how structural variables and agency link to effect
change. The employment of a more diverse range of
empirical methods, and recourse to inter-country com-
parisons, would have further helped in this endeavour.
COMPARATIVE POLITICS
Nonetheless, this volume should be praised for tack-
ling gender reforms and feminism in overlooked set-
tings such as Yemen. Moreover, its mixed findings
encourage us to develop a more refined understanding
of the relationship between the political activism of
women’s rights movements, and reforms and the
implementation of gender-sensitive laws. It should
therefore appeal to those interested in the link between
law and socio-political change, the determinants of
policy change and the impact of social movements.
Asma Ali Farah
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
New Parties in Old Party Systems: Persistence
and Decline in Seventeen Democracies by Nicole
Bolleyer. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
272pp., £55.00, ISBN 9780199646067
New Parties in Old Party Systems sheds light on two
neglected yet crucial questions for scholars of political
parties: Why are some new parties able to consolidate
their electoral support in the medium term while
others are not? And under which conditions are new
political parties more likely to persist as organisations?
Nicole Bolleyer answers these questions by carrying
out a systematic analysis of 140 organisationally new
political parties in seventeen long-established Western
democracies over the period 1968–2011.
The book takes fully into account the ‘double nature
of political parties as electoral vehicles and societal
organizations’ (p. 15). In the first part, Bolleyer is inter-
ested in assessing both the electoral sustainability of
political parties – defined as their ability to ‘maintain and
consolidate a certain level of electoral support over time’
(p. 15) and their organisational persistence – i.e. the ‘new
parties’ overall lifespan’ (p. 78). Both measures of perfor-
mance are analysed through different quantitative tech-
niques revealing the crucial role played by the conditions
in which party formation takes place. Indeed, new
parties are distinguished between entrepreneurial, which
are formed by actors not affiliated to a pre-existing
organised group (p. 40), and rooted, presenting ‘ties to
already existing organizations’. Among the several vari-
ables included by Bolleyer, the different origin reveals its
decisive importance in both new party sustainability and
persistence, and it is by far the most important predictor
for its performance, while ‘most significant variables only
had significant effects on one dimension’ (p. 213).
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
However, the implications of party origin are far
from being deterministic. In order to identify the role
of agency and the challenges of institutionalisation,
Bolleyer engages in several (illuminating) case studies,
which constitute the second part of the book. The
challenges of institutionalisation are illustrated by
the ‘leadership-structure formation dilemma’, which
‘creates a tension between the leadership’s interests to
stay in charge and the long-term viability of the
organization as a whole’ (p. 99). In particular, the
dilemma can lead the founding elites to take decisions
that make the party highly vulnerable in the medium-
to-long term. The agency of party founders plays a
decisive role as it can counterbalance the unfavourable
genetic predispositions, as in the case of entrepreneurial
parties, but it can also nullify the favourable ones under
which rooted formations come into existence.
This book is a very welcome contribution for schol-
ars of party politics and comparative politics alike, and
bears great theoretical and empirical significance.
Mattia Zulianello
(Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, Florence)
Comparative Perspectives on Environmental
Policies and Issues by Robert A. Dibie (ed.).
Abingdon: Routledge, 2014. 464pp., £90.00, ISBN
9780415813914
This edited volume from Routledge brings together ten
researchers to provide a comparative analysis of environ-
mental challenges across the world. The breadth of the
text is truly impressive as it focuses on both developed
and developing countries, with particular attention to
African states. The volume seeks to outline the political
factors at play in responding to environmental chal-
lenges. Editor Robert Dibie provides a strong start to the
volume, overviewing several key concepts and theories
in environmental policy analysis. Theories highlighted
include Ecological Modernisation, Environmental Justice
Theory and Ecological Feminism. The often-neglected
issue of gender equity in environmental policy appears
throughout the volume. From here, the book is broken
into three main sections – ‘Developed Countries’,
‘Developing Countries: Africa’ and ‘Developing Coun-
tries: Other Continents’ – which in turn are divided into
case-study chapters. Whole chapters are dedicated to
Canada, Ghana, Brazil and Jamaica, among others,
reflecting an ambitiously broad focus while also filling
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
271
existing gaps regarding less frequently researched states.
The text aims to appeal to legislators, policy analysts and
students, as well as those working in environmental regu-
latory agencies, with a view to providing a summary of
existing policy across continents.
The text is arguably required reading for anyone
working in the environmental sector in Africa.With case
studies on Sub-Saharan Africa more generally, Ghana,
South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria, the book provides a
strong snapshot of existing policy frameworks across the
continent. By including states outside Africa, a truly
global perspective can be gleaned.The three chapters on
developed states are very concentrated, however, with
the examination of Western Europe attempting to sum-
marise 14 countries in one chapter. The chapter also
posits that ‘[t]he European Union is made up of twenty-
seven European countries. Incidentally England is not
among them’ (p. 109) – an interesting perspective –
before appearing to confuse England and the UK. Yet,
despite these question marks, the volume succeeds in its
objective of providing a broad summary of various
policy responses to environmental issues, with a particu-
lar emphasis on developing states. In addition to consid-
ering local and transboundary challenges, the text also
offers a strong focus on environmental health policies. In
sum, for students wishing to understand the key themes
in environmental policy analysis and for anyone working
in African environmental policy, the text is sure to be of
interest.
Paul Tobin
(University of York)
Countering Terrorism in Britain and France:
Institutions, Norms and the Shadow of the Past
by Frank Foley. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2013. 337pp., £60.00, ISBN 978 1,107 02969 9
Countering Terrorism in Britain and France provides a
comprehensive understanding of the police services,
intelligence agencies and anti-terrorist legal regimes of
Britain and France. This book establishes a detailed
insight into the British and French governments’
responses to Islamist terrorism between 1995 and 2011
through ‘the interaction between transnational non-
state actors and domestic politics’ (p. 11).
The book is separated into five chapters comprising
three distinguishing determinants.The first determinant
examines how perceptions of the threat of Islamist
272
terrorism have affected the institutions, norms and
functioning of public services in Britain and France.
The second determinant explores the roles played by
police services and intelligence agencies and their
coordination to fight terrorism. The last determinant
focuses on the implementation of legislative reforms
after the 9/11 al-Qa’eda attacks, with particular
emphasis on preventing terrorism and conducting
counter-terrorist operations.
Frank Foley examines in detail the fact that, although
Britain and France are members of the EU and NATO,
and both exposed to Islamist terrorism, there are sig-
nificant differences between their strategies to fight
terrorism. These differences allow fascinating insights
into the two democratic and constitutional states, and
provide a far-reaching route map to other states that are
particularly threatened by Islamist terrorism. In fact, this
book conveniently builds its main argument on Britain
and France’s legislative reforms and operational strat-
egies against terrorism.
Countering Terrorism effectively exhibits the differ-
ences between two states by focusing on domestic
norms and institutions, such as criminal justice. While
Britain has used general courts for suspected al-Qa’eda
terrorists, France has constituted private courts to judge
suspected terrorists (pp. 291–2).The author’s analysis of
the differences between the British and French
counter-terrorism strategies is remarkable. There are
three major levels: (1) the level of society or the politi-
cal community, (2) high institutions of state and pro-
fessional security agencies, and (3) police services and
intelligence agencies. Foley successfully analyses the
puzzle of counter-terrorism policies regarding these
levels by addressing the importance of domestic norms
and legal systems that define the distance between
police and intelligence services.
Foley’s critical analysis of the British and French
legal systems for countering terrorism provides a clear
perception as it refers to the impact of distinct norms,
institutions and routines towards decision-making
mechanism regarding inter-agency coordination and
reform, and anti-terrorist legislation and operations.
Therefore, this book is recommended to counter-
terrorism readers due to the extensive comparative
investigation of two well-established legal systems.
I. Aytac Kadioglu
(University of Nottingham)
COMPARATIVE POLITICS
On Media: Making Sense of Politics by Doris A.
Graber. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
200pp., £15.99, ISBN 978 0 19 994598 6
On Media is an introductory text for those new to the
field of political communication. Doris Graber’s book
focuses upon the role that the media play in political
learning. The author argues that it is possible for news
media to enhance citizens’ civic IQ, but, if they fall
short, then other media types can cultivate political
understanding.
Graber’s key assumption is that some citizens do not
learn politically relevant information from the news
media, but gather it from other media sites. To test this
assumption, she undertook an appraisal of the adequacy
of the news supply in the US, a content analysis of serial
dramas and interviews with their audiences. The
methods were then replicated in the Netherlands and
Greece. Comparisons of news provision and interview
data give weight to Graber’s argument, that where citi-
zens cannot learn from news media, serial dramas can
provide this opportunity. For example, compared to the
US and the Netherlands, Greece has a low newspaper
readership and low internet usage (p. 120). Graber thus
observes that Greek viewers ‘paid substantially more
attention to the educational values of the dramas than
their Dutch and American counterparts’ (p. 129) because
Greek news media do not provide the same learning
opportunities.This illustrates how dramas can be catalysts
for political learning, providing context and vicarious
experiences that citizens use to understand politics.
Graber’s criticisms of the existing literature focus on
current methods used in political science and polls,
which stress knowledge of facts at the expense of meas-
uring understanding. Graber’s empirical work is a deci-
sive move away from this. By focusing on measuring
understanding gained from the politically relevant infor-
mation available, she reveals how ‘the public is not igno-
rant about essential political data and can form sound
opinions’ (p. 30) – contrary to other contentions. The
implications for political science are clear: the discipline
must not restrict itself to measuring the learning of facts,
but should strive to understand different types of knowl-
edge and the variety of ways in which citizens learn.
Graber assesses media holistically. However, her sample
of internet news media lacks detail and would have
benefited from a wider variety of online news sources,
instead of being limited to blogs (p. 39). Nevertheless, the
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
arguments and analysis given here are well-presented and
persuasive, if not generalisable to the entire population.
On Media provides an intriguing starting point for any-
one interested in the impact of the media upon politics.
Amy P. Smith
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
The Organization of Political Interest Groups:
Designing Advocacy by Darren R. Halpin.
Abingdon: Routledge, 2014. 224pp., £80.00, ISBN
9780415596800
This book studies interest groups by using an organisa-
tional theoretical framework. The author shows that to
date the literature has paid little attention to the organi-
sational form of interest groups because of the domi-
nance of other topics of interest to scholars.The author
wants to know: How are interest groups organised? Why
are they organised differently? What are the implications
of interest groups’ organisational design?
The author deals with the topics of group formation,
maintenance, population-level dynamics and policy in-
fluence throughout the book. However, these topics are
studied with an emphasis on their implications for inter-
est groups’ organisational form and vice versa. A group
does not always have the same organisational form
throughout its life span. It can evolve and develop a
‘group career’, which refers to its organisational history.
The organisational form of groups greatly affects ‘group
capacity’, which refers to interest groups’ policy influence.
Although a political scientist himself, Darren Halpin
effectively uses an interdisciplinary organisational
framework to shed light upon this topic. Despite its
theoretical nature, the logics proposed rely both on an
interdisciplinary literature and original qualitative and
quantitative data. Group case histories, population data
and survey data from the UK, US and Australia are
used in a mainly exploratory fashion. It should be
mentioned that this book does not ‘prove’ carefully
generated hypotheses with the data.The author’s aim is
to create a general framework of interest group organi-
sation to explore how an interest group’s organisation
may be influenced and can influence various issues that
are of interest to scholars working on interest groups.
Nevertheless, more specific hypotheses may be gener-
ated by other scholars relying on the author’s frame-
work that can advance the explanatory research on the
topic. For this reason, I believe that this book is a timely
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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273
addition to the literature, which can trigger future
research on interest groups, taking interest group
organisation more seriously.
Direnç Kanol
(Cyprus International University)
Equalizing Access: Affirmative Action in Higher
Education in India, United States and South
Africa by Zoya Hasan and Martha C. Nussbaum
(eds). New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012.
273pp., £30.00, ISBN 978 0 19 807505 9
This edited book on affirmative action and positive
discrimination in higher education discusses the equality
of opportunities in modern democracies, drawing atten-
tion to the entrenched hierarchies of race, gender, caste,
religion and class and how these group characteristics
marginalise people, creating unequal distribution of
opportunities and social injustice. In discussing how
affirmative action can enhance social justice, the book
focuses on three countries: the exclusion based upon
race in the US and South Africa, and the caste system in
India. Thus, the book’s contributors present the differ-
ences and similarities in enacting successful affirmative
policies as well as the challenges across three nations.
They discuss the principles of justice that could over-
come the domination suffered by members of a group
and reduce the marginalisation of groups that have his-
torically suffered from discrimination, exclusion or
under-representation in society and which could apply
to society as a whole and uniformly everywhere.
In the work of the authors, higher education is teased
out as a salient sphere where affirmative action needs to
be reconsidered because university education is regarded
as having significance in both individual and societal
terms. Not only does it lead to personal development,
but it also contributes to human development, prepara-
tion for citizenship and an understanding of diversity.
The common argument that threads through the
book is that inequalities in access to higher education are
greater than other inequalities in education, despite posi-
tive affirmation and discrimination, because of the chal-
lenges involved such as low quality of output, lack of
formal admission policies, and disadvantages based on
economic, ethnic, gender and rural inequality and the
negative impacts of privatising higher education. There-
fore, the book’s contributors engage in debates around
policy, legislation and the constitution in terms of creating
274
a fairer distribution of social advantage, and they offer
suggestions as to how these challenges can be overcome.
The book considers in depth how to redress histori-
cal injustices in society and presents the complex
process of building and operationalising affirmative
action to eradicate inequalities at every level of society.
However, most of the contributions lack theoretical
discussions on social justice; they remain at the level of
policy discussions and do not illustrate how these poli-
cies can benefit from the rich body of work on global
social justice. Nonetheless, the book provides a critical
scrutiny of context and policy in equalising access and
is a helpful source for higher education researchers and
students of social justice.
Firdevs Melis Cin
(University of Nottingham)
Ethnonationalist Conflict in Postcommunist
States:Varieties of Governance in Bulgaria, Mac-
edonia and Kosovo by Maria Koinova. Philadel-
phia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.
311pp., £45.50, ISBN 978 0 8122 4522 6
As Eastern European states started their transition to
democracy they produced various models of governance
of majority-minority relations. While some states
managed the transition with minimal violence between
ethno-national groups, others broke into civil war.
Ethno-nationalist violence was relatively low in Bulgaria,
middle range in Macedonia and high in Kosovo. In this
comparative study, Maria Koinova asks two major ques-
tions that aim to unpack the causes and dynamics behind
these different outcomes.Why do ethno-nationalist con-
flicts reach different levels of violence? And why do
these conflicts persist despite strong international conflict
resolutions and peace-building programmes?
Koinova approaches these questions through a
decade-long study of the three societies (i.e. cases)
where majority-minority relations escalated to different
degrees of violence after the end of communism. After
many field visits to the three countries, interviews with
majority and minority leaders and government agents,
and consultation with secondary sources, Koinova’s
fundamental argument is that the levels and duration of
ethno-national violence are rooted in conflict dynamics
established between majorities, minorities and interna-
tional agents during the formative period at the end of
communism; what she calls the ‘critical juncture’ (p. 5).
COMPARATIVE POLITICS
How timing and sequencing of majority-minority
policies took place during the critical juncture influ-
enced how the conflict dynamics initially evolved, and
how each conflict consolidated at different points on a
scale of violence.
The book’s argument is developed in seven well-
written chapters. The first two examine the formation
of informally institutionalised conflict dynamics and
the adaptation of in-group/out-group behaviour
among majority and minority groups, respectively. The
ensuing three chapters look at the role of the interna-
tional community in the formation of the critical junc-
ture and how international actors, kin-states and the
diaspora affected the level of violence in these societies.
The final two chapters explore the change and conti-
nuity in conflict dynamics. The book concludes with
the lessons learned about informally institutionalised
conflict dynamics and how they can be applied in other
post-communist societies (e.g. Romania, Georgia and
Bosnia) as well as beyond the post-communist world
(such as in the Middle East).
Koinova’s book is aimed at democratisation and
conflict scholars, but without a doubt it is valuable to
comparative historians, international interventionists
and policy makers who care about democratisation and
ethno-nationalist conflict. The book is innovative
because it provides an alternative way of theorising
governance of majority-minority relations, and it opens
up new thinking about EU enlargement into the post-
communist Western Balkans.
Perparim Gutaj
(University of Utah)
State Erosion: Unlootable Resources and Unruly
Elites in Central Asia by Lawrence P. Markowitz.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013. 195pp.,
£29.95, ISBN 9780801451874
The trajectories of the post-Soviet transitions of Kazakh-
stan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
appear to have put the damper on the enthusiasm that
seemed to underpin the hopes of most observers
immediately after the end of the Cold War. In particular,
Central Asian statehood has become an idiom for the
topsy-turvydom of regional affairs, where more often
than not interstate relations are characterised by a
modicum of order, while intrastate affairs elicit patterns
of anarchy. For Lawrence Markowitz, the phenomenon
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BOOK REVIEWS
of externally stable but internally fragile political entities
(to which we still refer through the shorthand of ‘states’
for lack of a better terminology), such as the ones
encountered in Central Asia, offers one of the most
conspicuous indications of the radical shifts in the post-
Cold War theory and practice of international relations.
Markowitz’s claim is that ‘immobile capital’ (p. 21)
such as cash crops (e.g. cotton or coffee) generates a
unique rent-seeking behaviour, which – perhaps para-
doxically – ensures not only the survival, but also some-
thing that we might call the ‘stability’ of such weak
polities. Thus, the political order that emerges, even if
pockmarked by criminal practices, corrupt and unac-
countable elites and pervasive security forces, produces
predictable patterns of behaviour through the establish-
ment of networks of patronage and protection. Looking
at the cases of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Markowitz
demonstrates the fluidity of sub-national politics in weak
and failed states. His inference is that it is the complex
relationship between local elites and state rulers that is not
only key to understanding the erosion of state institu-
tions, but which can also be ‘decisive in perpetuating
state power or leading a country into state failure’ (p. 156).
Markowitz therefore offers a vivid and much-needed
picture of the nuances of the post-Soviet transforma-
tions in the countries of Central Asia. The perceptive-
ness of his analysis makes his book one of the most
ambitious and provocative considerations of the
dynamics and transformation of state institutions in
weak and fragile states. In fact, his analysis will illumi-
nate the explorations not only of scholars of post-
Soviet and post-communist statehood, but of anyone
interested in weak statehood. To emphasise the com-
parative value of his analytical framework, Markowitz
offers brief parallel assessments of fragile statehood in
Africa (Zimbabwe and Somalia), the Middle East (Syria
and Lebanon) and Eurasia (Belarus and Kyrgyzstan)
that will benefit both the seasoned scholar and the
inexperienced student of comparative politics and IR.
Emilian Kavalski
(Australian Catholic University)
The Health of Nations: Towards a New Political
Economy by Gavin Mooney. London: Zed Books,
2012. 244pp., £16.99, ISBN 9781780320595
The Health of Nations places the emphasis on health as
the real wealth of a nation. The primary focus of the
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Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
275
book is not only to give an account of the ill health of
the decision-making authorities of neoliberalism, but
also to make suggestions through case studies.The book
approaches the problem with a deductive methodology,
using the general idea of the malice of neoliberalism in
the health policies of countries, and ends with solutions
drawn from successful health models basically from
leftist countries. It highlights the fears faced by the US to
adopt socialist reforms in health care, Great Britain’s
attempt to bring market forces into health care by cre-
ating an ‘internal market’ within the National Health
Service, South Africa’s resource-poor public health care
system under neoliberalism, and Australia’s preventive
health care policy aimed at safeguarding the interests of
the industry. Gavin Mooney takes into consideration
successful experiences of community participation from
Kerala, Cuba and Venezuela in elaborating his solutions.
The book is extremely useful for academics, policy
makers and those who are looking for reasons and solu-
tions to the health of nations.
Mooney has succeeded in explaining the reasons for
the malice of health care policies in the current
neoliberal atmosphere. He has highlighted the dangers
of corporatisation in health care policy making. He
argues for shifting the power to decide the principles
underlying health services to citizens and thereby con-
verting the current health systems into real social insti-
tutions. The case studies are well chosen to exemplify
the problems as well as the solutions. However, a gap in
the study is to analyse the structural favouritism and
necessary conditions within a country if it is to choose
community participation. In the case of Kerala, for
example, a not-for-profit approach towards health care
in which missionary hospitals have a big role to play
operates alongside community participation with gov-
ernment support. However, neoliberal principles and
the commoditisation of health care are on the rise in
these states as well. This is because anything that does
not generate revenue is regarded as a burden to gov-
ernment, and its sustainability is questioned unless
funding options are provided in a capitalist economic
structure. Empirical data is missing, but the book is
enriched with experiences and critiques made by
various authors on global health problems.
These slight limitations cannot halt the vision put
forward by the author. His approach towards explaining
the problems and solutions are innovative in nature.
Overall, the book is worth reading in its content
276
and approach towards the world’s ill health and its
solutions.
Tinu Joseph
(St.Francis De Sales’ College, Nagpur, India)
Constructing Neoliberalism: Economic Transfor-
mation in Anglo-American Democracies by
Jonathan Swarts. Toronto: University of Toronto
Press, 2013. 293pp., £48.99, ISBN 9781442646469
In the period since the mid-1970s many Western
democracies have experienced a neoliberal revolution
in policy making. Interventionist policies that were part
of the political mainstream in the immediate post-war
decades – demand management, full employment,
public ownership, corporatism – have largely been
abandoned in favour of free market alternatives. This
book from Jonathan Swarts examines the role of politi-
cal elites – as ‘norm entrepreneurs’ – in driving this
process, comparing the emergence of neoliberalism in
four Anglo-Saxon democracies: the United Kingdom,
Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In addition to
making careful use of much contemporary material,
Swarts draws on a substantial number of interviews
with (anonymous) politicians and civil servants, focus-
ing on the rhetorical and coercive strategies that politi-
cal elites used to justify neoliberal policies and reshape
public expectations about the boundaries between the
market and the state.
This approach does have a number of drawbacks:
addressing such a wide variety of cases means that
depth is occasionally sacrificed for breadth; preserving
the anonymity of interviewees often obscures the par-
ticular perspectives from which they are speaking; and
the relatively narrow definition of ‘norm entrepreneurs’
as political elites excludes many of those actors (think-
tanks, financial journalists) that were most influential in
popularising neoliberal ideas. Some historians may also
disagree with the uncritical use of the term ‘postwar
consensus’ – a concept that has been challenged and
problematised in much of the recent literature – to
describe the period between 1945 and the mid-1970s.
Nevertheless, the comparative approach adopted here
allows Swarts to offer a number of useful insights into
the process of ‘neoliberalisation’. His analysis of the
rhetorical strategies employed by norm entrepreneurs
in each of the four countries reveals the way in which
political elites mobilised narratives of crisis and decline,
GENERAL POLITICS
alongside arguments about rationality and inevitability,
in their justifications of neoliberal policies. Of particu-
lar value, however, is the way in which this comparative
approach enables Swarts to demonstrate that the pro-
gress of neoliberal policies did not proceed at a
uniform pace or in a uniform manner in different
contexts, but was in fact highly contingent upon the
particular political and economic environment(s) into
which they were introduced. If the emergence of
neoliberalism is often thought of as a global phenom-
enon, the analysis here reminds us that we need to give
careful consideration to its local dimensions.
Matthew Francis
(University of Birmingham)
General Politics
Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the
War on Terror: Agenda-Building Struggles by
Vian Bakir. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013. 311pp., £65.00,
ISBN 9781409422556
The author focuses on the agenda-building struggles of
the Bush and Blair administrations over their use of
torture to gain intelligence for the War on Terror
(2001–12). Identifying and using Michel Foucault’s
archaeological and genealogical approaches into power-
knowledge formations, she argues that it is the presence
and absence of information and its persuasive power
that expose the torture-intelligence nexus in the Third,
Fourth and Fifth Estates (legislatures, news/current
affairs and digital/social media). Vian Bakir approaches
and explores the topic by consulting sources from
unauthorised leaks, official investigations, court pro-
ceedings, memoirs, histories, investigative journalism,
real-time reporting, artefacts and NGO activity.
The cases argue, unearth and evaluate the strengths
and weaknesses of various modes of resistance to gov-
ernmental strategic political communication, emphasis-
ing ‘sousveillance’ (community-based recording from
first-person perspectives). The chapters detail the fol-
lowing topics: study of torture, intelligence and media
manipulation; strategic political communication, intel-
ligence and its discontents; the rise of the torture-
intelligence nexus; the sousveillance failures of John
Walker Lindh; surprise sousveillance at Abu Ghraib;
Baha Mousa and torture in the British military;
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
absences of sousveillance, Binyam Mohamed and
British complicity in torture. The volume appeals to
those with interests in media and communication,
sociology and social theory, politics and political com-
munication, IR and journalism.
This well-written book succeeds in these goals and
also in ameliorating the potential complexity of issues
by creating the protagonist-led approach while identi-
fying the correlative and behind-the-scenes approaches
to agenda-building research. It is a significant contri-
bution to the literature offering an innovative overview
of the issues, theories and themes that constitute the
study and practice of torture-intelligence by linking
them coherently. The arguments are plausible in
describing the basic functions as well as the challenges
of sousveillance. These are supported by examples of
the relationship between strategic political communi-
cation and sousveillance, albeit restricted to the key
American and British experiences, omitting compari-
son with 45 other countries involved in the torture-
intelligence nexus. It advises those engaged in studies of
intelligence, sousveillance and torture to seek to know
more about information, where it comes from, its accu-
racy, how it can be used and what might be done to
improve its reliability and timeliness.
Bakir concludes by encouraging citizen action as
hierarchical ‘sousveillers’ to bring those in power to
act in a more accountable manner, although observing
that there is unfortunately an increased push towards
intimidation and secrecy. That is the dilemma of rec-
onciling the balance between civil liberties and
national security.
Glen Segell
(London Security Policy Study)
What Use is Sociology? Conversations with
Michael-Hviid Jacobsen and Keith Tester by
Zygmunt Bauman. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014.
134pp., £15.99, ISBN 9780745671253
In What Use is Sociology, Zygmunt Bauman is in con-
versation with M. H. Jacobsen and Keith Tester to
explain his experiences and intellectual engagements
with sociology. The conversations evolving from the
three basic questions of what, why and how to interact
with sociology inform the reader of the scope of socio-
logical imagination and its living reflections con-
structed around, and by, us.
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277
The book starts by warning a reader of sociology
against falling into the traps of fashion that one might
get attracted to while building their interaction with
the discipline.The idea is to view sociology as a flexible
conversation with one’s lived experiences and to make
sense of our lives in broader historical context. The
book traverses the spaces of ‘what sociology is?’ and
‘what does sociology achieve?’, but in the middle of
these, it creates a space for the reader to ask ‘why would
one engage with sociology?’ and ‘what would, perhaps,
attract a non-sociologist to the realms of sociology?’.
Throughout the conversations, one could sense an
emphasis on what happens to the ‘I’ while interacting
with the world and on the need to look beyond the
‘curtains of prejudgement’ to reinvent the path between
one’s findings and interpretation of it. For Bauman, a
continuous experience of defamiliarising the familiar
and familiarising the unfamiliar constitutes the solid
ground on which one could exercise one’s imagination
and sharpen one’s curiosity.
What Use is Sociology not only informs the readers of
the sociological connotations, quoting from varied
sociological theorists, but it also interweaves the ideas
of great philosophers like Hegel and Adorno and con-
nects sociology with other social productions such as
art, plays, literature and other fields of social sciences.
Bauman elucidates the need to re-cast knowledge and
its tools to grapple with the ever-changing social
milieu around us, enabling the ‘social actors’ to make
reasonable and effective choices.
This lucidly written book with its more-than-
interesting set of questions and even more thought-
provoking answers will be very useful to both students
and teachers of sociology.As Bauman puts it, the business
of sociology is to spur readers ‘to think’ and immunise
them against the charm of ‘quick fixes’. Many of the
themes that twist and weave around the questions dis-
cussed with Bauman make the reader go back and forth
between many ideas that could either enrich one’s
knowledge pool or make one feel intellectually impo-
tent. Either way, the ‘message in the bottle’, as Adorno
advocated and Bauman reiterates in his responses, is the
conversation built in this text that would definitely
create new ground to converse with the reader, and
implore her to think the text in her own way.
Swati Mantri
(Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi)
278
The Third Globalization: Can Wealthy Nations
Stay Rich in the Twenty-First Century? by Dan
Breznitz and John Zysman (eds). Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2013. 416pp., £27.50, ISBN 978
0199917846
This book provides a wide-ranging overview of what
the editors refer to as the ‘third globalisation’ – the
contemporary period of globalisation, characterised by
a shift away from US hegemony, production patterns
that are decomposed so that different stages within the
process of production are unbundled, outsourced and
offshored, and in which ICT developments have put an
end to the so-called ‘Baumol’s Disease’ (whereby the
services sector is afflicted by low productivity growth).
The book is structured around what the editors refer to
as the ‘double bind’ affecting policy makers in the
post-2008 context: between the pressure not to inter-
vene in the market (in order to enable it to operate)
and at the same time to intervene in order to ensure
that the global economy can recover from the last crisis
and avoid creating the conditions for the next one.
The editors and contributors have done an excellent
job of ensuring that the core questions of the project
underpin it throughout. Each of the authors is a leading
expert in their field, and as a result the reader learns a
huge amount from the book. Topics include the
Chinese auto industry, the Indian information technol-
ogy sector, and government responses in the US, France
and Japan (which are found to have ‘neither the vision
nor the capacity to make the fundamental adaptations
needed’, p. 382) and in the Nordic countries (which
have been (arguably) forced to adopt a more ‘competi-
tive and adaptive corporatism’, p. 382). The range of
topics is such that the book represents a major over-
view of the current state of the global economy.
Where the book could perhaps be stronger is in
identifying a clear theoretical or analytical argument
regarding the current state of the global economy.
While it is clear that each of the wealthy nations must
find a growth model that will enable it to ‘stay rich’ (in
the words of the book’s sub-title), and that this would
require ‘a unique period of policy experimentation and
innovation’ (p. 389), there is no firm conclusion on
how and/or whether this would be achieved. Also,
while each of the core attributes of the ‘third
globalisation’ and the challenges that these have created
for economic and political elites are outlined and con-
GENERAL POLITICS
ceptualised in detail, more could perhaps have been said
specifically on the role of globalisation in producing
these outcomes – i.e. to what extent does the global
nature of the third globalisation play a causal role?
David J. Bailey
(University of Birmingham)
Global Tobacco Control: Power, Policy, Govern-
ance and Transfer by Paul Cairney, Donley T.
Studlar and Hadii M. Mamudu. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. xiii+284pp., £57.50, ISBN
978 0 230 200043
This overlooked book raises many fundamental ques-
tions related to tobacco consumption, such as: ‘Who
has the responsibility for tobacco policy?’ (p. 24), ‘How
is tobacco framed?’ (p. 199) and ‘How important is
tobacco control as a policy issue?’ (p. 29). In a context
where health policies may vary considerably according
to countries or states, the authors conceptualise the
‘non-decision-making and the un-politics of smoking’
(p. 10) as evidence for the fact that ‘businesses are at
their most effective when they succeed in minimising
government (and media and public) attention to their
power struggles with other actors’ (p. 10).
Chapter 2 usefully revisits the currently used theo-
ries on policy change in terms of tobacco policies;
even the collusion between lobbies promoting tobacco
and policy makers can be theorised: ‘When govern-
ment officials and certain interest groups form
relationships, they recognise the benefits, such as
group-government stability and policy continuity’ (p.
33), and ‘this stability hinges on socialisation’ (p. 33).
The ensuing empirical chapters (3–8) are case studies
focusing on a specific zone (EU, UK, US). In devel-
oping countries (Chapter 8), transnational tobacco
companies ‘have cultivated allies at multiple levels of
government to protect their main activities’ (p. 186).
Therefore, the ‘marketing and promoting of tobacco
use’ is still ongoing in Third World countries, along
with the activity of ‘undermining tobacco policy
development’ (p. 186). As a direct consequence, ‘there
is a limited change’ (p. 215) because ‘the health frame
still competes with attempts to frame tobacco as an
economic good’ (p. 215); in many developing coun-
tries, ‘tobacco growing and manufacturing is an
important source of jobs, exports and revenue, and
smoking prevalence is often rising’ (p. 215).
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
This is truly a major contribution in the fields of
comparative policy analysis, medical sociology and
political science: ‘the first major attempt by political
scientists, writing from a unified perspective, to explain
global tobacco policy’ (p. 2). The chronological table
detailing the ‘major tobacco control events’ since 1885
includes decisions related to cigarette taxes or banning
of cigarette advertising in certain countries (p. 49).
Global Tobacco Control is nothing less than a
groundbreaking book in political science because it
re-conceptualises tobacco in terms of policy and gov-
ernance, which is rare. Because of its interdisciplinary
approach and for the richness of its documentation,
analysis and tables, this rigorous book is essential for
public libraries, colleges and universities.
Yves Laberge
(University of Ottawa)
On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to
Drone Warfare by Noam Chomsky and Andre
Vltchek. London: Pluto Press, 2013. 192pp., £12.99,
ISBN 9780745333878
Perhaps the advent of drones shows only that nothing is
new under the sun. That is the message from Noam
Chomsky and Andre Vltchek, who set out to illustrate
how from 1945 the West has partaken in what amounts
to genocide.This transcribed conversation aims to strike
a nerve with readers informed by Western media and
complacent in living standards found north of the global
divide.The authors seek to inspire action against exploi-
tation identified through discussion of events spanning
over half a century of US hegemony. The authors argue
that while Western powers have directly or indirectly
caused the massacre of some 55 million people, princi-
pally for resource plunder, methodical indoctrination has
effectively subdued and even mobilised the masses in
perpetuating a course of brutal exploitation.
A counter-narrative is pitched against a delineation
of Western media-based ideology. The authors distance
themselves from ideologues by insisting on strictly
factual empiricism. But claims as to mechanisms of
indoctrination and the origins of fascism that gesture to
Chomsky’s oeuvre of political thought do have a place
in driving forward this narrative woven from personal
experiences and historical evidence. The account starts
from 1945 as the peak of US power, marked by the
destruction of Western European anti-fascist resistance
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279
(p. 149). Numerous cases implicating the West in crimes
including coups, airstrikes and anti-democratic control
are categorised by region: the Eastern Bloc; India and
China; Latin America; the Middle East; Africa; Western
Europe and the US. Perhaps the case pivotal to the
discussion is the American bombing of the Plain of Jars
(p. 175). In recalling what he witnessed of conflict and
journalism during his time spent in Laos in 1970,
Chomsky demonstrates the interplay between military
operations, information production, media and apathy
that pattern broader discussion (pp. 38–41). Cuba’s
facilitation of African liberation and international
medical aid stand out from among contrasting exam-
ples of hope-inspiring action (pp. 75–8).
On Western Terrorism provides a critical perspective,
especially in deconstructing the anticipated presuppo-
sitions of readers informed largely by US news media.
With punchy delivery prioritised over rigour, the
weight of the arguments depends on Chomsky’s repu-
tation. Those familiar with his works may find little
new. Timely reference to drone warfare grabs attention,
but the subject goes untouched; allusions to cyberwar
and a concluding remark by Vltchek that drones ‘are
synonymous with terrorism and absolute impunity’ (pp.
124 and 172) only leave the discussion wanting. Still,
the conversation masterfully spurs action and encour-
ages hope despite sorrowful circumstances.
Brian Simbirski
(University of Cambridge)
The Margins of Citizenship by Philip Cook and
Jonathan Seglow (eds). Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
168pp., £85.00, ISBN 9780415685658
This volume contributes to the analysis of those mar-
ginal subjects that are located at the periphery of social,
political and legal concern about citizenship. The con-
tributors – all senior scholars – answer differently the
question of the relation between marginality and citi-
zenship.The ambition of the book is to compare, analyse
and explore the nature of different cases of this problem.
After the introduction, seven chapters address three
cases of marginal citizenship. The first three are con-
cerned with the case of migrants. While Chapter 2
applies a conventional normative approach to the
acquisition of citizenship and the general question of
what rights migrants should enjoy, Chapter 4 analyses
the particular case of immigrant domestic workers in
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this last regard. In Chapter 3, Linda Bosniak critically
investigates the issue of amnesty of irregular migrants,
interestingly going against the prevalent view on the
matter. The second set of contributions investigates,
from different perspectives, the case of people with
disabilities.While Chapter 5 discusses disabilities within
a framework of the standard liberal theory of distribu-
tive justice, Chapter 6 brings the attractive notion of
incommensurability of the views of able and disabled
people into the scene when contrasting passive and
active approaches to citizenship. The last set of pieces
address the case of exclusion of certain subjects from
electoral participation. In what seems to be an excep-
tion to the inclusionary tendency of the book, Chapter
7, by Peter Ramsey, provocatively defends the disen-
franchisement of prisoners by affirming their exclusion
from democratic citizenship. Chapter 8 contributes to
the discussion on the electoral exclusion of children by
challenging the use of the minimum voting age as a
mechanism and defending in contrast a competency
test. In the final chapter, Jonathan Seglow reflects upon
the idea of marginalisation as a general problem of
citizenship and sustains the value of contributory prac-
tices in an effort to bring some ideas associated with
the philosophy of recognition into a liberal debate on
citizenship.
The promise of a common ‘normative ideal of citi-
zenship’ (p. 1) is never developed within the book,
hindering the development of any conclusion about
what the margins can say about citizenship. However,
this is not an impediment, as the multiplicity of notions
of citizenship, justice and community developed in the
book enrich reflection about an issue that is naturally
resistant to theoretical canons.
Pablo Marshall
(University of Glasgow)
Patterns of Protest: Trajectories of Partici-
pation in Social Movements by Catherine
Corrigal-Brown. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 2012. 177pp., £42.95, ISBN 978 0 8047 7410 9
The author attempts to answer the question that many
social movement scholars and activists are attracted by:
Why do people participate in contentious politics and
how do they engage within a relational and organisa-
tional context? Catherine Corrigall-Brown examines the
conditions under which people who joined any social
GENERAL POLITICS
movement remain active or decide to withdraw. She
argues that examining participation over the life course
can help to illuminate the ways in which individuals
disengage from a particular social movement organisa-
tion, but not necessarily from participation as a whole.
In her book, Corrigall-Brown carefully uses inter-
views and data from four organisations – two of them
left-leaning (Catholic Workers and Farm Workers
Union) and two right-leaning (Concerned Women for
America and Homeowners’ Association) – that reveal
aberrations in organisational scope as well as levels of
interaction between members.The author discerns four
prototypical trajectories that individual participants can
follow after their initial engagement in contentious
politics: persistence, where a person remains active in the
initial social movement organisation; transfer, in which
the individual changes from one organisation to
another; individual abeyance, where people disengage
from the protest activities but return to participation
later in life; and disengagement, by which the author
refers to the process of permanently ceasing to partici-
pate in contentious political activities.
The absence of any discussion in the book about the
internet and how it is intertwined with political par-
ticipation is notable since the internet offers wide
options for information and therefore new ways of
protest participation and mobilisation. Additionally,
Corrigall-Brown’s findings are based on interviews
with people who were already active in protest activ-
ities in the 1960s or 1970s. Despite the fact that the
author correctly recognises that over the past 50 years
there have been radical changes in the characteristics of
protest, she fails to note the impact of these changes for
the trajectories she identifies. In the last chapter of her
book she argues that, because of the social transforma-
tion over the decades, there are now lower levels of
group membership but higher levels of protest partici-
pation, but she does not clarify whether there are
higher levels of abeyance and transfer or any increase in
disengagement by individuals.
Despite these minor flaws, Patterns of Protest is an
original contribution, rich with theoretical insights and
practical implications. It succeeds in providing con-
structive knowledge and new aspects on the study of
social movement organisations.
Alexios Alecou
(University of London)
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
Law in Politics, Politics in Law by David
Feldman (ed.). Oxford: Hart, 2013. 268pp., £45.00,
ISBN 9781849464734
The link between law and politics is often fraught with
little consensus on how it might be best understood
and a range of normative positions are often adopted.
This book enters this contentious territory with con-
tributors mostly, although not exclusively, from legal
studies, but this is not to say they necessarily present
politics as a danger to the law.
The first section looks at lawyers in politics, noting
that they are the most highly represented professional
group in the UK House of Commons. Chapters deal
with lawyers in politics from a biographical/anecdotal
perspective, with a data-driven overview and through
the use of language in legislation. Perhaps the most
worrisome conclusion is that, despite the presence of a
large cadre of lawyers in politics, politicians seem to be
still (wilfully or not) relatively lax in their appreciation of
the values of the rule of law.The second section explores
the advice that politicians receive from lawyers, again
balancing the biographical with the analytical. The dif-
ficulties of (but desire to) keep politics and law separate
is revealed through the problems of balancing what is
politically required or plausible with the (rule of) law as
regards the purpose(s) of legal advice: Is it to support the
politician’s mandate? Is it to constrain the distortion of
legal principles? Or is it about indicating what is legally
possible? Indeed, as the contributors indicate, it may be
all of these things. The next section focuses on law
commissions and legislation examining the impact on
the political process of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and
1949. The final section widens the focus, including a
remarkably negative assessment of the plausibility and
legitimacy of international law (and international courts)
alongside an altogether more positive treatment of the
impact of various human rights instruments on demo-
cratic practice in the UK.
Overall, this collection presents the complexities of
the relationship between politics and law rather well,
even if, as with most edited collections, one would
struggle to refine a clear and focused conclusion having
read all the chapters. However, while this is often a
problem, here it more fairly represents the analytical
differences that are evident in examining the subject.
Although unlikely ever to be recommended for a
module on the subject, for colleagues working at the
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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281
interface of politics and law, there is much of value in
the various contributions and this book is well worth
having a look at.
Christopher May
(Lancaster University)
Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Inter-
net by Abraham H. Foxman and Christopher
Wolf. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 256pp.,
£17.99, ISBN 978 0230342170
Abe Foxman is the National Director of the Anti-
Defamation League (ADL). Chris Wolf is the national
chair of the ADL Civil Rights Committee. The ADL
has been in the forefront of fighting hate and bigotry
for many years. It is one of the leading world organi-
sations that are actively engaged with the challenge that
hatred presents.
Hate speech is designed to threaten certain groups
publicly and act as propaganda for offline organisations.
Hate groups use websites to share ideology and propa-
ganda, to link to similar sites and to recruit new con-
verts, advocate violence and to threaten others. This
useful book analyses the ways hate mongers are utilis-
ing the internet, and asks what can be done to counter
their activities. The book discusses the targets of
Nethate and offers practical proposals to address this
increasing problem.
In this timely and disturbing book, Foxman and Wolf
elucidate that the scope of the challenge is nevertheless
significant. The internet is a vast ocean of knowledge,
data, ideologies and propaganda. It is omnipresent,
interactive, fast and decentralised. The ease of access to
the internet, its low cost and speed, its chaotic structure
(or lack of structure), the anonymity which individuals
and groups may enjoy and the international character
of the World Wide Web furnish all kinds of individuals
and organisations with an easy and effective arena for
their partisan interests. The internet contains some of
the best-written products of humanity, and some of the
worst ones.
Foxman and Wolf further explore how social media
giants such as Facebook and YouTube, as well as the
most successful search engine Google, are struggling to
reconcile the demands of business with freedom of
expression and the real-life threats posed by the present
purveyors of hate. The internet, of course, is not
the problem. The problem arises where it is used to
282
undermine our well-being as autonomous beings living
in free societies. Foxman and Wolf argue that only
unified efforts by parents, educators, Netusers, law
enforcement officers and policy makers can possibly
stop the hate contagion before it translates into hate
crimes.
This well-written book will be of interest to political
scientists, lawyers, sociologists and internet scholars
who study manifestations of hate speech in the New
Media.
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
(University of Hull)
Social Media: A Critical Introduction by Chris-
tian Fuchs. London: Sage, 2013. 224pp., £23.99,
ISBN 9781446257319
Social Media sets out to analyse its subject using critical
theory. The book is split into three main sections. The
first section, ‘Foundations’, provides the reader with a
grounding in critical theory and Marxism, as well as
some of the main themes of the book: theories of the
social; political movements, in particular the Arab Spring
and the Occupy movement; participatory democracy;
and the capitalist control of communication.The bulk of
the book is the ‘Applications’ section, which explores
individual social media channels in greater depth. The
social media channels covered are: Google, Facebook,
Twitter, WikiLeaks and Wikipedia. The final section,
‘Futures’, looks at whether a socialist, participatory alter-
native to mainstream social media is possible.
The ‘Applications’ section of the book provides some
interesting insights into social networks and into the
companies that own them. For instance, the chapter on
Google looks at the way in which the company
encourages a culture of long hours and overtime
among its employees. The chapter on Twitter focuses
on it as a public sphere and its role in the 2011 Arab
Spring and Occupy movement. Christian Fuchs seeks
to undermine the notion that these were ‘Twitter revo-
lutions’ – for instance, by pointing to interviews con-
ducted with people involved in the events of 2011,
which found that other communication channels,
besides Twitter and Facebook, played an equally, if not
more important role in organising and spreading the
protests.
In the book’s concluding chapter, Fuchs argues for
a commons-based internet. Since capitalism is ‘the
GENERAL POLITICS
context of the Internet’ (p. 255), an ‘alternative Internet
requires ... an alternative societal setting: a solidary,
co-operative information society – a participatory
democracy’ (p. 264). However, at times it is difficult to
untangle the two – e.g. Fuchs’ arguments relating to
social media and his support for a commons-based
politics. He states that the ‘primary political task for
concerned citizens should ... be to resist the commodi-
fication of everything and to strive for democratizing
the economy and the Internet’ (p. 248). But why,
beyond the obvious fact that social media is the focus
of the book, does he gives the economy and the inter-
net seemingly equal weighting, and what role does he
see social media playing in a commons-based society?
Fuchs talks about an internet that ‘enables knowledge,
communication and collaboration for their own sake as
social activities between humans’ (p. 257), but it is not
clear where exactly social media fits in.
Naomi Racz
(Independent Scholar)
Running Randomized Evaluations: A Practical
Guide by Rachel Glennerster and Kudzai
Takavarasha. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2013. 480pp., £24.95, ISBN 978 0691159270
In Running Randomized Evaluations, Rachel Glennerster
and Kudzai Takavarasha set out the essentials of plan-
ning, implementing and interpreting results from a field
experiment.The book will appeal particularly to policy
practitioners and researchers grappling with their first
field experiments. While case studies are largely drawn
from development economics, there is plenty here from
which students of political science can learn.
Chapters 1, 2 and 3 set out the rationale for experi-
ments and random assignment. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 take
the reader through the mechanics of conducting
randomisation and sample size calculations, and empha-
sise the importance of designing and pre-testing a data
collection strategy. Chapters 7 and 8 offer a systematic
checklist of threats to internal validity, with advice on
how to mitigate these ex ante through smart design and
ex post through statistical techniques. Tailored web
resources provide virtual coaching on exploring and
interpreting datasets using Stata. A key prescription is
the use of pre-analysis plans and the valuable discipline
they impose. Chapter 9 closes with sensible advice on
extracting and generalising policy lessons, which serves
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
as a must-read for any policy designer on how to be a
critical consumer of evaluation research and evidence.
For example, the authors argue that ‘not all randomised
evaluations are created equal’ (p. 386), and offer a series
of prompts to examine how compelling the results
from randomised evaluations are.
While the book excels at providing step-by-step
checklists and making internal validity issues accessible
to a wide audience, there is limited coverage of more
advanced techniques for dealing with, for example,
heterogeneous treatment assignment probability, differ-
ential attrition and missing data. However, the array of
signposts to published research with online replication
datasets should serve as a valuable resource for readers
who want to dig deeper into troubleshooting methods
and statistical analysis.
As you would expect from academics linked to MIT’s
Poverty Action Laboratory, this book distils a wealth of
experience for implementing randomised evaluations in
real-world settings. Glennerster and Takavarasha have
delivered a trusty manual for those considering and
running randomised trials to evaluate impact and test
theory. The book complements recent publications on
experimental methodology by Morton and Williams
(2010) and Gerber and Green (2012). Running
Randomized Evaluations has a well-deserved place along-
side these on the field experimenter’s bookshelf.
Manu Savani
(University College London)
Teaching Politics beyond the Book: Film, Texts
and New Media in the Classroom by Robert W.
Glover and Daniel Tagliarina (eds). London:
Bloomsbury, 2013. 340pp., £24.67, ISBN
9781441125118
This is a welcome addition to the small but growing
number of books on the teaching of political studies. In
this volume, Robert Glover and Daniel Tagliarina have
brought together sixteen pieces that explore a range of
innovative approaches that move beyond the lecture
and use of standard political texts. The book is divided
into five parts. The first focuses on how non-standard
texts can be used to explore political issues. The scope
of this is wide, encompassing both contemporary lit-
erature from the Global South and the Bible. Part II
turns the focus towards arts and visual media, and
includes pieces on the use of political cartoons and
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
283
graphic novels. There is a shift of media for Part III, as
the focus turns to musical and theatrical media. This is
broadly defined to include the use of hip-hop and
popular music in teaching, as well as role play and
simulation exercises. Part IV focuses on the use of film
and television and includes chapters focusing on the
portrayal of Africa in Hollywood films, the political and
social messages of Pixar movies and the use of satirical
television shows. The final part turns to the internet
and social media, with coverage of how Twitter,
podcasting and Web 2.0 tools can be used. The pub-
lisher has also provided a companion website to
support the book and chapters point the reader to
additional resources that can be accessed.
The book is aimed at those teaching politics and IR
in a university setting and anyone looking for innova-
tive ideas on how they can develop their teaching
could certainly benefit from reading it.The chapters are
not formulaic and each approaches the material in a
different manner. Some provide useful resource guides
to texts or films that can be used to explore particular
issues of theoretical positions. Others explore underly-
ing political and pedagogic issues in a more conceptual
and critical manner. All steer away from a simplistic ‘top
tips’ or ‘how to’ guide and all make references to wider
political science teaching and learning literature, which
will help readers explore their chosen topics more fully.
The one aspect that is lacking is the extent to which
chapters include data on the success of the pedagogical
strategies outlined in enhancing student engagement
and learning gain. This would be a welcome addition
to a second edition.
John Craig
(The Higher Education Academy, York)
Giving Kids a Fair Chance: A Strategy That
Works by James J. Heckman. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 2013. 112pp., £10.95, ISBN
9780262019132
This slim volume summarises for a wider audience
James Heckman’s influential ideas on the importance
of investing in early childhood education and care,
followed by comments from ten contributors who are
practitioners and researchers from across the humanities
and social sciences. Heckman’s main theses, concisely
stated, are threefold: socio-economic success in life
depends not just on cognitive traits and skills, but in
284
equal measure on non-cognitive traits such as persever-
ance, motivation and self-confidence in learning and
task completion; the most crucial stage for the devel-
opment of both these skill sets is early childhood; and
social policy intervention at this early stage, especially
when aimed at improving disadvantaged family envi-
ronments, can have significant and lasting effects as they
are more efficient and more effective than interventions
later in life, such as class size reduction, job training, and
adult learning and literacy programmes.
The evidence for these arguments comes mainly
from two randomised participation early childhood
interventions in the US: the Perry Preschool Project
and the Abecedarian Project. It is impressive. Compared
to the randomly assigned controls, the participants in
these programmes have been conclusively shown to
score systematically, substantially and significantly better
on a wide range of variables measuring educational
achievements and high school graduation rates, and,
later on, employment rates, monthly earnings, welfare
receipt status and crime rates.
Among the contributions from the Forum section,
I’d highlight Carol Dweck’s point that there is in fact
strong evidence (albeit non-randomised and not long-
term) that interventions aiming to teach adolescents
and adults that their learning capacities are malleable
can have major effects at a much lower cost than early
childhood interventions. David Deming in turn makes
this important further observation: many members of
the control groups in the larger-scale intervention pro-
grammes often cited as being less successful (e.g. Head
Start) were actually themselves enrolled in other forms
of early care programme. This biases downward our
assessment of those programmes’ effectiveness.
The book’s target audience is primarily the general
policy-interested readership and time-starved and
attention-short policy makers. The main ideas are pre-
sented in a concise but sufficiently complex manner. A
minor issue is that the scientific studies referred to are
often not cited – a problem that might have been easily
avoided. Overall, as a popular introduction to a truly
important evidence-based idea for reforming social
policy, Heckman’s volume can only be regarded as a
great success.
Pieter Vanhuysse
(European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and
Research, Vienna)
GENERAL POLITICS
Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson,
Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli and Chad
F. Emmett. New York: Columbia University Press,
2012. 298pp., £18.50, ISBN 978 0 231 13182 7
Sex and World Peace is not just a valuable academic
contribution to security studies, but also a call for action
to improve women’s rights in the world. This book
focuses on a neglected association of security studies:
gender inequality and international peace. The authors’
main argument is that ‘there will never be peace for our
nations unless there is peace between the sexes’ (p. 208).
The authors empirically analyse this association by
measuring the effect of physical security of women and
inequity in family law on global peace. As a result, they
demonstrate that the best predictor of a state’s peaceful-
ness is its level of violence against women – not democ-
racy, wealth or prevalence of Islamic culture.
The book is well structured, consisting of seven
chapters that are distributed very well from the intro-
duction to the conclusion. The world maps presented
on various issues of gender equality are certainly fruits
of immense data collection and measurement efforts.
However, they are wrongly placed in the book. It
would be better if they were located in Part III, where
they are discussed, instead of being in the middle of the
book. Certainly, this is not the authors’ failure, but
rather that of the publisher. The authors draw their
selection of issues for mapping onto their theoretical
framework around three harms of micro-aggression
against women in society: (1) lack of bodily integrity
and physical security; (2) lack of equity in family law;
and (3) lack of parity in councils of human decision
making. However, the selection of single issues for
mapping is random rather than systematic. Moreover,
while the effect of the first two harms on world peace
is analysed empirically, the last issue is not included in
the statistical analyses.
One of the many advantages of the book it its
theoretical framework, which draws not only on femi-
nist studies of IR but also on a wide range of theories
including biology, psychology and sociology. What also
makes this book very impressive is that the range of
examples comes from all around the world. The reader
learns about gender inequality issues by learning the
real stories of women in every part of the globe. Two
criticisms can be directed at the case selection,
however: first, case studies from some regions such as
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BOOK REVIEWS
South America are given very little place; and
second, some cases are unnecessarily repeated in several
chapters.
This book is designed not only as a regular academic
book, but also as a textbook and it should surely be
included in the curriculum for students of IR, security
studies, political science and gender studies at both
undergraduate and graduate levels.
Senem Ertan
(Social Sciences University of Ankara)
Post-Tsunami Reconstruction in Indonesia:
Negotiating Normativity through Gender
Mainstreaming Initiatives in Aceh by Marjaana
Jauhola. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. 232pp., £80.00,
ISBN 9780415527590
Marjaana Jauhola explores the various gender
mainstreaming efforts taking place in the post-tsunami,
post-conflict context in Aceh, a region in northwestern
Indonesia. Jauhola avoids a simple assessment of how
well gender mainstreaming is being implemented in
Aceh. Instead, she asks what gender mainstreaming does
to ‘bodies and their desires’, and how practices of
gender mainstreaming support certain norms as being
‘livable or enjoyable’ (p. ix). Drawing upon historical
and ethnographical awareness of Aceh, Jauhola illus-
trates how post-disaster gender mainstreaming goals
conducted by (international) gender experts reaffirm
liberal feminist ideals of progressive development.
The first chapter unpacks the dynamics of govern-
ance feminism, highlighting ways in which
heteronormative gender norms are embedded in liberal
practices of governmentality. This analysis is used to put
forward a view of feminism as a subversion of the
desire to govern and to be governed. The second
chapter provides an historical contextualisation of how
gender and gender mainstreaming is understood in
Aceh, reminding us of the ways in which concepts are
transformed within local contexts. By drawing upon a
range of gender narratives in Aceh, Jauhola illustrates
how gender is made intelligible primarily within the
context of shari’a Islam.The intersections between local
gender and religious norms are made apparent in the
remaining three chapters, which all analyse a specific
governmental practice and how they retain the
normativity of gender mainstreaming goals. There are
many things to commend about these chapters, but I
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285
would single out Jauhola’s rich understanding of the
local history and interpretations of Islam, which is
deftly deployed to analyse gender norms and subver-
sions across Aceh.
The most theoretically innovative chapter – which
has a number of conclusions relevant beyond the
Acehnese context – is Chapter 4, which unpacks the
use of gender analysis by gender experts to reinforce
heteronormative gender norms. Jauhola carefully analy-
ses an Oxfam International radio drama produced to
raise awareness of post-tsunami gender mainstreaming
opportunities/projects. She demonstrates how the
gender analysis used to develop the radio drama has
been transformed into depoliticised and disciplined
knowledge limiting gender fantasies, where a
heteronormative harmonious nuclear family is central
to the achievement of liberal gender mainstreaming
and development goals.
Taken together, the book illustrates that the post-
structural confrontation of the issue does not lack
policy alternatives but reworks the political (p. 171),
calling for a subversive vision of feminism that is in a
constant state of flux. The book is an engaging consid-
eration of gender practices that will be of interest to
researchers in development studies, IR, post-disaster
and post-conflict reconstruction studies, and gender
studies.
Laura McLeod
(University of Manchester)
A Micro-Level Perspective on the Dynamics of
Conflict, Violence and Development by Patricia
Justino, Tilman Brück and Philip Verwimp (eds).
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 317pp.,
£66.00, ISBN 978 0 19 966459 7
A Micro-Level Perspective on the Dynamics of Conflict,
Violence and Development collects the findings of the
five-year MICROCON research programme, funded
by the European Commission with the aim of devel-
oping new means of analysing and mitigating conflict
at the micro-level – the level of communities, house-
holds and individuals. As the editors note in their intro-
duction, violent conflict is a collective affair, but
perpetrator groups ‘do not constitute uniform entities,
but are rather formed by interactions at several cultural,
political, and economic levels’ and are ‘driven by
common (but not necessarily equal) interests and
286
aspirations’ (p. 6). The various contributions herein
drive home the fact that not only does violence arise
from a quite complicated nexus of factors operating at
the micro-level, but the consequences of – and solu-
tions to – violent conflict must draw from a more
localised base of knowledge.
The book is divided into four parts focusing upon
understanding violent conflict, individual and group
motivations, consequences of violent conflict and policy
implications – all driven by the micro-level perspective.
In the second section, for example, Yvan Guichaoua
explores the dynamics of violent mobilisation based
upon research in Niger and Nigeria, concluding that ‘the
logics of followers generally differ from those of their
leaders and that behaviours observed in the course of
war are endogenously produced within armed groups
but also under the influence of civilians’ attitudes and
agencies and, crucially, states’ actions’ (p. 86). In the third
section, Chiara Altare and Debarati Guha-Sapir empha-
sise the need for localised data in tracking and treating
the effects of conflict upon human health, while in the
last section, Carlos Bozzoli, Tilman Brück and Nina
Wald argue for the use of randomised evaluation tools in
peaceful and conflict-affected settings in order to analyse
the efficacy of various programmes employed. The
book’s content goes beyond civil wars and ethnic
cleansings to include, for example, a chapter on the
multicultural policies of various European states vis-à-vis
their Muslim minorities.
While the book makes a cogent argument for study-
ing and seeking to ameliorate conflict at a more localised
level than is perhaps standard practice, it does, on occa-
sion, suffer stylistically, especially as some chapters simply
constitute summaries of various MICROCON research
papers. This criticism aside, this is an engaging volume
that tackles the issue of violent conflict in a way that
should inspire not just future researchers, but also devel-
opment agencies and governments across the world.
Guy Lancaster
(Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture)
Beyond Consumer Capitalism: Media and the
Limits to Imagination by Justin Lewis. Cam-
bridge: Polity Press, 2013. 232pp., £17.99, ISBN
9780745650241
It goes without saying that the greatest quality of capi-
talism is its power of survival, which in a major way
GENERAL POLITICS
rests on its ability to change forms periodically. Such
change acquires certain specificities which seem to be
adjusting to the demands of the emergent era, but in a
subtle way they come to shape the era itself. Thus,
(with apologies to Marx), just when one begins to
think that capitalism is digging its own grave, one never
finds it in the ‘grave’, metaphorically speaking. This
nevertheless induces some scholars to take up the chal-
lenge and imagine a ‘world with alternatives’. The
volume under review is one such attempt, which scans
the modus operandi of consumer capitalism and seeks to
go beyond. In doing so it places the major focus on
media dynamics, with particular reference to the milieu
constructed by advertising and news.
The author is convinced from the very beginning
that the promise of abundance of consumer capitalism
cannot ensure human progress and human develop-
ment. The four parts of the book elaborate why this is
so. Part I is devoted to the environmental, economic
and social constraints of economic growth, in which no
new ideas can be found. Part II is on the (manipulative)
politics of advertising, though it could have been leaner
in view of the existing literature on the theme. Rela-
tively more interesting is Part III, which concerns
reporting of consumer capitalism and has a specific
focus on ‘disposable news’, which arises out of the
broader commodification process with deliberate obso-
lescence as the key. Finally, Part IV looks for a better
world based on the freedom to ‘tell stories’ without an
obsessive engagement with consumerist and commer-
cial instincts. However, one is provoked to argue that to
go beyond the parameters of consumer capitalism it
might be analytically far more fruitful to have a foun-
dational focus on the information dynamics beneath it,
avoiding the perils of media reductionism. The ‘I
consume, therefore I am’ transmission of this
‘worldview’ may have the mediated hype of material
consumption as its front, but its deft dissemination and
legitimation in the mind of the audience-cum-people
rests on a meticulously crafted information game in
which the media is only a facilitating agency lending a
‘wraparound’ feeling.This nuanced process of manoeu-
vring goes far beyond the mechanistic process of
‘manufacturing consent’ which, as is the case with the
whole volume, overwhelmingly examines the sellers’
side of the story. The author rightly posits the
problematique in the early part of the book – the
simultaneity of dependence and disillusionment vis-à-vis
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BOOK REVIEWS
consumerism – but somehow loses his way. Perhaps the
much-needed construction of an imaginary beyond the
monocultural storytelling by consumer capitalism needs
to be initiated from a much more critical scrutiny of
the so-called ‘information age’ itself.
Dipankar Sinha
(University of Calcutta)
After Public Law by Cormac Mac Amhlaigh,
Claudio Michelon and Neil Walker (eds). Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013. 313pp., £50.00, ISBN
978 0 19 966931 8
This explorative volume brings together scholars to
map the domain of public law and, despite its epigram-
matic title, it is a towering intellectual contribution to
the dynamism of public law. The book comprises a
collection of fourteen essays structured under three
themes: the nature of public and private law; the
domain, values and functions of public law; and he
evolution of public law. It is both a theoretical and
practical discussion of public law in action. All the
contributions are engaging and often enlightening, and
it would be a disservice to single out any particular
contribution. However, one thing that the volume
manages beautifully to dissect is the public/private law
divide. The volume is also thought-provoking and
sometimes infused with a sense of nationalism because
of public law.
Fundamentally, Mac Amhlaigh et al. seek to demon-
strate what comes next after public law, and the con-
tributors’ treatment of public law issues at the global
level highlight how public law has transposed itself
beyond the nation state to the institutional operations
of international organisations – examples being the
adoption of a handbook of regulatory systems at the
World Bank, or how the emergence of new technol-
ogies and economic liberalisation has shaped public
law. The volume also indicts public law as a force that
captures global constitutionalism, which is sometimes
seen as a threat to the territorial sovereignty of nation
states. Although the silver lining for public law, as the
volume projects, can be found in a form of global
legality, it also presents a paradox for it at the global
and/or state level.
The authors go to great lengths to explain this
paradox and instead resort to caution, but this is typical
of lawyers. The reality is that in modern politics –
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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287
where rights are overly visible in global public law, as
one of the contributors suggests – public law is a
reflection of the political system in which it operates,
and this is often reflected in international institutions.
The volume is a reflection of Euro-American public
law; thus it never engages the effect of (alien) public
law on other actors outside of the Euro-American
dimension. This has often been the failure of excellent
scholarship and this volume is no exception.
P. Sean Morris
(University of Helsinki)
Institutions in Global Distributive Justice by
András Miklós. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 2013. 178pp., £65.00, ISBN 978 0 7486 4471 1
This book has two aims. The first is to make the case
that if egalitarian principles of distributive justice apply
within domestic states, then there are also compelling
reasons to accept that those same principles apply glob-
ally. The second is to make a specific claim about the
role of institutions with respect to distributive justice.
For András Miklós, institutions do not just determine
the scope of distributive justice (he remains more or
less agnostic about whether they must do this or not),
nor should they be seen merely as instrumentally
important for the implementation of distributive prin-
ciples (although they are of course important for this).
Beyond these roles, institutions also play a constitutive
role in determining the content of principles of dis-
tributive justice. This is because, for example, without
political institutions, distributive principles remain
under-determined – we require authoritative institu-
tions to flesh out the specifics. Furthermore, political
institutions settle the matter of what is required of each
individual with respect to distributive principles; absent
such institutions, the coordination necessary to realise a
given distributive outcome is beyond us.
These points – and others like them – about the
constitutive role of institutions are worth making, and
seem intuitively correct. Indeed, in themselves they are
rather uncontroversial: neither relational cosmopolitans,
nor non-relational cosmopolitans, nor indeed anti-
cosmopolitans, seem likely to deny them.What is more
interesting is precisely what kind of institutions are
required to play this constitutive role. In his examples,
Miklós makes frequent reference to domestic
institutions’ ‘effective coercive powers’ and ability to
288
‘authoritatively settle debates’ (p. 150). One might think
therefore that in order to play a constitutive role with
respect to principles of global distributive justice, global
institutions will need to amount to a world state. This,
of course, would be controversial, but Miklós devotes
very little space to the question of institutional specifics
(less than one page).This is a shame, as this is where an
interesting debate is to be had.
It is worth pointing out that Miklós’ thoughts on the
constitutive role of institutions are confined to the very
last chapter.The preceding five chapters, by contrast, go
over well-worn arguments in the global justice debate,
coming down on the cosmopolitan side of the fence.To
my mind, the book would have benefited from a
rebalancing of the space devoted to its two main aims,
since it is in the last chapter that Miklós is doing
something new, and from which interesting questions
proceed.
Luke Ulaş
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
The Law of Direct Democracy by Henry S.
Noyes. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2014.
536pp., $80.00, ISBN 9781611632767
Direct democracy (referendums, citizens’ initiatives, the
recall, etc.) has been a cherished dream for political
campaigners in the UK and other Western democracies
for over a generation. Idealists like ‘Unlock Democracy’
in Britain and ‘Mehr Demokratie’ in Germany have
ceaselessly lobbied for citizens to be given the right to
initiate legislation (The Citizens’ Initiative), veto bills
before they receive Royal Assent (The Referendum)
and to recall sitting Members of Parliament through a
special election. They have, by and large, not been
successful. Often politicians have promised such reform
only to conveniently ‘forget’ about it when they are
elected. (The current British government is no excep-
tion, having quietly shelved the introduction of even a
watered down version of the ‘recall’.)
Those advocating the introduction of direct democ-
racy have claimed – with some justification – that more
democracy leads to higher levels of participation and
occasionally policy effects, such as lower levels of taxa-
tion or more equality. But what advocates have failed to
consider is the vast administrative and practical impli-
cations involved if the mechanisms of direct democracy
are to be introduced.
GENERAL POLITICS
What they have also failed to appreciate to the full is
that not only does direct democracy enable the citizens
to hold the politicians to account, but also that the
mechanisms of more engagement are occasionally cap-
tured by special interest groups with deep pockets.
Henry Noyes’ comprehensive and detailed tome The
Law of Direct Democracy is a thorough and meticulous
study of all the practical issues pertaining to direct
democracy. Limited to the US – where roughly half of
the states have provisions for direct democracy – Noyes
cites and analyses the major court cases and provides
extracts to the major documents debating and chal-
lenging direct democracy, such as the Federalist Papers.
The book gives a sober – and realistic – overview of
the pros and cons of having a system that allows the
voters to vote directly on laws.
This book is not a polemic and nor does it take
sides. It merely presents the facts and the ‘law of direct
democracy’.This is a valuable book and the sections on
the ‘recall’ especially will provide interesting examples –
and ammunition – for those who claim that the recall
would lead to political chaos. This book may not
become a run-away bestseller, but it is a valuable
volume for those who have a scholarly interest in
referendums.
Matt Qvortrup
(Cranfield University)
The Power of the Talking Stick: Indigenous Poli-
tics and the World Ecological Crisis by Sharon J.
Ridgeway and Peter J. Jacques. Boulder, CO: Para-
digm, 2014. 199pp., £24.95, ISBN 9781612052915
The talking stick represents a model of listening, dis-
cernment and integration practised by a number of
indigenous peoples. The stick is passed from person to
person, often while seated in a circle convened to
address problems or make decisions. Only the person
with the stick is permitted to talk. The others must
listen deeply so as to be able to re-tell not only insights,
but also sentiments.
In this volume, the authors emphasise the importance
of humanity passing the talking stick to indigenous
peoples now while we are living through a time of
pervasive ecological degradation, which threatens to
remove the necessary foundations for good living on this
planet. Ridgeway and Jacques argue that this crisis has
been both obscured and precipitated by industria – a
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BOOK REVIEWS
social and ecologically harmful partnership among
multinational corporations, the global financial system
and the state. As an antidote, indigenous worldviews,
which tend to view all people and the rest of nature as
existing in kin relationships, and transnational solidarity
with global indigenous movements are held up as keys
to assuring a just and sustainable future. Further, the
authors present a green theory of the state, designed to
reveal not only the need for greening states, but also that
the basis for state power and wealth lies in the exploi-
tation of nature and peoples on the peripheries.
However, as they hold that the state is the only actor
with the necessary power to break industria’s hold on the
world, Ridgeway and Jacques’ solution to the ecological
crisis is to reclaim the state for civil society.
The title of this book is somewhat misleading.
Despite frequent invocations of the need to pass the
talking stick to indigenous voices, the authors rarely
do so in any sustained manner. They acknowledge
this issue, in part, when they explain that much indig-
enous wisdom is oral. However, there is a great deal
of work published on indigenous movements that
would have further supported their argument.
Remaining gaps could have been bridged through
conducting interviews. This additional research might
have served as a check against misrepresenting indig-
enous concepts and movements. Currently, for
example, the authors’ treatment of the ‘Idle no More’
movement over-magnifies the role of Chief Theresa
Spence in a collaborative undertaking. The editing
also breaks down at points, so that acronyms and
concepts are distractingly ill-rendered. Nonetheless,
employing political studies literature well, the main
argument is cogent and provocative, making for
stimulating reading.
Christopher Hrynkow
(University of Saskatchewan)
The Public Understanding of Political Integrity:
The Case for Probity Perceptions by Jonathan
Rose. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 224pp.,
£65.00, ISBN 9781137343741
Following incidents like the MPs’ expenses scandal in
Britain in 2009, researchers have begun exploring how
the public judges the conduct of political elites. Recent
work by Sarah Birch and Nicholas Allen has shed light
on the standards of behaviour that British citizens
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289
expect of their elected representatives. Now Jonathan
Rose has contributed new research on the nature and
implications of opinions towards ‘public probity’. At
issue here are attitudes towards the ethical dimensions
of the way political actors behave – e.g. whether they
are seen as honest, fair and transparent. Rose argues that
focusing on ‘output’ attitudes such as political trust and
satisfaction is not enough. Rather, we need to probe
opinions towards the specifics of the political process as
a way of understanding these more generalised judge-
ments.
For this argument to be valid, citizens’ reactions to
public probity must be distinct from more generalised
judgements about trust. Rose begins by showing this is
indeed the case, with citizens’ trust ratings across a
range of public officials existing largely independently
of perceptions of MPs’ standards of behaviour. If trust
and assessments of public probity are, thus, distinct, then
which causes which? Do judgements about MPs’
conduct shape trust in public officials, or do trust
judgements inform how people assess MPs’ behaviour?
Rose shows the former to be more plausible; that
judgements about legislators’ actions shape the trust
people have in public officials.
Not surprisingly, when it comes to the factors that
shape citizens’ probity beliefs, the impact of political
scandal is evident. The value, though, of Rose’s analysis
lies in the specifics he identifies. He shows, for
example, that some scandals may actually have a posi-
tive impact on public perceptions, if these scandals are
accompanied by evidence that the political system is
working to remedy violations of ethical conduct. More
worrisome – for political elites – is the finding that,
following the MPs’ expenses scandal, citizens do not
seem to distinguish among MPs who made expenses
claims, irrespective of the legitimacy of these claims;
only MPs who lodged no claim are exempt from
public censure.
Occasionally, the book has a somewhat dry, ‘techie’
feel.The setups to each empirical section are sometimes
overlong, and the results could have been presented in
a snappier way. Overall, however, the book contributes
a range of new and interesting findings, strengthening
our understanding of the way citizens relate to their
political representatives today.
Ben Seyd
(University of Kent)
290
Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research
Methods and the Interpretive Turn by Dvora
Yanow and Peregrine Schwarz-Shea (eds). New
York: M.E. Sharpe, 2014. 520pp., £68.95, ISBN
9780765635402
In the second edition of this book, the contributors
provide a wealth of material for an insightful overview
of empirical research methods within the context of
interpretive methodologies. Consisting of 25 chapters,
the book covers a variety of issues that are of interest to
researchers who want to use interpretive research to
make sense of the social world in a creative, relevant
and rigorous way. The chapters are divided into four
sections: ‘Meaning and Methodology’; ‘Generating
Data’; ‘Analysing Data’ and ‘Re-Recognising the
Human Sciences through Interpretive Methodologies’.
The first section engages with the ‘interpretive turn’ in
the social sciences and provides a philosophical and
historical foundation for interpretive approaches. The
next two sections deal with the practicalities of doing
interpretive research, while the final section reflects on
what’s at stake in adopting an interpretive approach to
research – one that offers ‘a human science that
embraces, theorizes, and struggles with the humanity of
both researchers and those that they study’ (p. 442).
Sceptics may worry that a 500-page book dealing
solely with methods and methodology runs the risk of
being dry, or even worse, stands as an irrelevant, inac-
cessible work simply ‘squabbling over hammers versus
hoes, diverting energy from studying substantive
matters of greater consequence’ (p. 425). However, this
book is neither of these things. Each chapter is well
written and framed with an introduction that reflects
on the authors’ path to their current intellectual posi-
tion, highlighting how lived experience impacts on the
practice of research. Moreover, the five new chapters
are a welcome addition providing insights into issues
that often arise when doing interpretive research.
Several of these chapters begin to provide answers to
big questions about the political significance of statistics
(McClure, pp. 50–3), the language-reality dichotomy
(Dow, pp. 64–79) and how to deal with the ‘sprawling,
sticky, lumpy, impure, and distinctly rough around the
edges’ (Wilkinson, p. 389) material that one is left with
after conducting fieldwork. Recognising that our
knowledge is always, and deeply, political (p. 425), this
book demonstrates that discussions about methods and
GENERAL POLITICS
methodology are important in their own right. It is an
invaluable resource for anyone interested in these
important debates over method and methodology,
interpretive methodologies or interpretive/qualitative
methods (see pp. xvii–xxi for the editors’ delineation of
the two), and it should be commended for its diversity,
depth and incredible scope.
Rhys Crilley
(University of Birmingham)
Green Politics in China: Environmental Govern-
ance and State-Society Relations by Joy Y. Zhang
and Michael Barr. London: Pluto Press, 2013. 159pp.,
£18.99, ISBN 978 0745332994
Environmentalism, Resistance and Solidarity:
The Politics of Friends of the Earth Interna-
tional by Brian Doherty and Timothy Doyle.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 250pp., £57.50,
ISBN 9780230250352
The two books under review here have different
themes but uniformity in objectives. Both aim to
sketch the headway of environmental politics – a buzz
word in the twenty-first century. Joy Zhang and
Michael Barr’s Green Politics in China empirically
studies green politics in China – one of the most
polluted countries in the world – and disproves many
of the established hypotheses that civil society is inher-
ently opposed to the state. Brian Doherty and Timothy
Doyle’s Environmentalism, Resistance and Solidarity, on
the other hand, seeks to decipher the reality of trans-
national environmental organisations by outlining key
characteristics of their structure, their goals, their poli-
tics and their indemnities. Doherty and Doyle, never-
theless, confine themselves to the study of 74 national
organisations of Friends of the Earth International
(FoEI) – a sui generis membership-based transnational
environmental organisation.
Read together, these two books thus provide an inter-
esting study: while Zhang and Barr seek to demystify the
state-society relations in China while protecting the
environment, Doherty and Doyle instead analyse how
environmentalism has spread throughout the globe and
consider the inherent differences between these trans-
national environmental organisations.
As a Chinese saying goes, ‘if we don’t change our
direction, we are likely to end up where we are
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BOOK REVIEWS
headed’. Green Politics in China empirically establishes
that both Beijing and Chinese society are mending
their ways and building a symbiotic relationship with
each other in order to achieve the common goal of
environmental protection. Zhang and Barr identify
three core themes. The first is issues of rights and
responsibilities in environmental conflicts. The authors
are of the view that ‘social relatedness provides essential
insights to the rationales of the green agenda’ (p. 3).
Second, the authors unpick the entangled social webs
that enable environmental action in China. In other
words, how Chinese activists interpret their relationship
and integrate those with their expectation for environ-
mental actions (p. 36). The third element is a series of
innovative mobilisation strategies employed by Chinese
stakeholders in environmental protection. ‘I monitor
the Air for my Country’ is one such innovative tool to
spread awareness about air pollution in China (p. 70).
Zhang and Barr believe that ‘fragmented authoritarian-
ism’ and ‘environmental authoritarianism’ are to a large
extent in accord with environmental protection and
have in fact endorsed ‘policies from above and counter-
measures from below’ (p. 108).
Doherty and Doyle’s book offers a fascinating
account of FoEI, which links environmentalism explic-
itly to social justice and opposition to neoliberalism (p.
133). In the authors’ opinion, FoEI is acting as a fed-
eration of environmental movements whereby various
forms of environmentalism congregate, which they cat-
egorise into the north-south; the right-lefts and ‘the
three posts’ (p. 24). Environmentalism, Resistance and Soli-
darity concentrates on three inherent tensions among
these different groups identified by Walker (p. 80): the
political differences among these groups and how to
bring about change, especially between the North and
South; national versus international priorities; and
regional differences between groups. Nevertheless, the
authors are optimistic that FoEI’s commitment ‘to col-
lectively ensure environment and social justice, human
dignity and respect for human rights and peoples’ rights
so as to secure sustainable societies’ (p. 83) coalesce
these different groups to work together.
The book discusses how FoEI is working on climate
change and food sovereignty. Doherty and Doyle
emphasise that while FoEI campaigns against genetically
modified (GM) food in the northern hemisphere, the
focus is on freedom from hunger in the southern hemi-
sphere (p. 155).The book brilliantly draws our attention
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291
to the fact that the needs of North and South are
different and that in the South, instead of anti-GM food
campaigns, what is needed is service delivery (p. 162) of
seed stocks and a seed distribution network among peas-
ants and indigenous communities as a means of chal-
lenging transnational power directly (p. 165).
Green Politics in China offers an engaging account of
environmental governance in China, where actors are
adopting new strategies and sharing their space to build
a ‘New China’. Environmentalism, Resistance and Solidar-
ity, on the other hand, demonstrates how a trans-
national environmental organisation is making a web of
entirely opposed national environmental groups, all
adhering to FoEI’s principle of ‘working for political
change on environmental and social justice’ (p. 133).
Zhang and Barr’s book is essential for students,
researchers and policy makers seeking to understand
the nuances of environmental politics in China and it is
a valuable addition to the existing literature of envi-
ronmental politics. Doherty and Doyle’s study illus-
trates the story of FoEI, which has developed a
distinctive transnational environmentalism and is a
‘must-read’ for environmentalists and researchers.
Rajiv Ranjan
(Shandong University, China)
Britain and Ireland
The Foundations of the British Conservative
Party: Essays on Conservatism from Lord Salis-
bury to David Cameron by Richard Carr and
Bradley W. Hart (eds). London: Bloomsbury Aca-
demic, 2013. 240pp., £70.00, ISBN 9781441106148
It is undoubtedly an ambitious undertaking to assemble
a collection of essays that provides a satisfactory
account of the foundations of the British Conservative
Party – a party with deep and complex historical roots
in the modern political history of Britain. To attempt
such a feat in a small volume like this is even more
admirable, and it is an exercise in expectation manage-
ment for both the prospective reader and editors alike.
With this in mind, it is pleasing that this volume
provides a particularly insightful, readable and relevant
collection of essays on the ideological and historical
foundations of the British Conservative Party. It is not
only a critical analysis of past episodes in the political
formation of the party, but a commentary on what this
292
tells us about the party’s future direction in the
build-up to the 2015 general election.
Born from the contributions to a 2010 conference
entitled ‘Conservatism: Today and Yesterday’ held at
Churchill College, Cambridge, this book is structured
thematically, rather than chronologically, with chapters
focusing on the ideological foundations of the party; the
Conservatives and Unionism; beyond Westminster to
Europe and local government; Conservatism and party
politics; and the future of Conservatism after the coali-
tion. This structuring works extremely well, providing a
sense of a dynamic collaboration of ideas within and
between the chapters, as opposed to the predictability of
many books such as these. Both eminent scholars in the
field and early career academics, historians and political
scientists develop these themes throughout the book, in
addition to a thought-provoking piece from former
Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major.This adds a
multidisciplinary and intricate quality that provides both
a broad overall perspective and detailed accounts of the
foundations of the party.
There are many highlights.The most interesting con-
tribution, from this writer’s perspective, comes from
Stuart Ball and his analysis of the principles of British
Conservatism from Balfour to Heath. Ball’s argument is
that, at least until the 1960s, the Conservative Party main-
tained a focus on the maintenance of the constitution,
the continuation of the empire and the improvement of
living standards for the people. Other contributions,
especially from Steven Howell on localism and Robert
Saunders on the Ulster crisis, knowledgeably provide
insights that show the foundations of much contempo-
rary Conservative policy and thinking, from the demo-
cratic illegitimacy of Europe to the Big Society.
While sections on the Peelite and Disraelian legacies
would have been welcome, these omissions are noted
by the editors, and do not detract from a welcome
contribution to the literature.
Tristan Martin
(Newcastle University)
Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box: 50 Things You Need
to Know About British Elections by Philip Cowley
and Robert Ford (eds). London: Biteback Publishing,
2014. 306pp. £14.99 (p/b), ISBN 9781849547550
The editors of this book rightly claim in the introduc-
tion that this is not a conventional book on British
BRITAIN AND IRELAND
politics. This acts as both a warning and a welcome to
an excellent piece of work produced through the PSA’s
Elections, Public Opinion and Parties specialist group.
It is a series of well-researched yet snappy chapters
written by a range of scholars.
The subjects covered are wide-ranging and eclectic.
These include: why people lie about voting, the role of
emotions, how public opinion changes during referen-
dum campaigns, religion and politics, and the gay mar-
riage debate. Whilst many books often stick to a single
political theme or topic, this one benefits from its wide
spread of topics because of the brevity of the chapters.
The topics may appear at first glance to seem incom-
patible with each other, yet the structure and style of
the chapters bring them together in a highly effective
manner. Indeed, this work is the intellectual equivalent
of Dave Lister’s ‘chilli chutney sandwich’ in the cult TV
series Red Dwarf.
As indicated above, one of the core benefits of this
book is the concise nature of each of the chapters.
Because they are short, each makes its points directly,
thereby avoiding the risk of being overwritten. Indeed,
there is a tendency in academic texts to over-labour the
arguments, a problem which this book nicely avoids.
This makes it an easy book to pick up (or indeed to
put down), thereby ensuring that the reader benefits
from a bite-sized discussion of a given subject.
At the time of writing, this book has already received
a great deal of attention from political scholars and
practitioners. This attention is justified. Furthermore,
the popularity of the book is likely to be extensive
because its target audience is very broad. It covers
British politics, international development, Interna-
tional Relations, devolution, and issues of national
identity, amongst others. As a consequence, it will be of
ongoing interest to students, academics and political
actors from across the academy.
Andrew Scott Crines
(University of Leeds)
British Foreign Policy by Jamie Gaskarth. Cam-
bridge: Polity Press, 2013. 271pp., £17.99, ISBN 978 0
7456 5115 6
Good books on major topics in international relations
are surprisingly hard to find, which makes Jamie
Gaskarth’s excellent British Foreign Policy very welcome.
Using interpretive theory to great effect to demonstrate
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BOOK REVIEWS
the inherited traditions and the new challenges that
shape contemporary foreign policy making, it draws
upon interviews with leading British practitioners of
the past 30 or so years, as well as the relevant theoretical
and empirical literatures.
Gaskarth divides the book into seven substantive
chapters, analysing the key actors, the making of
policy, the influence of conceptions of self-identity,
Britain’s world role, ethical considerations, and the
interaction with the defence and economic sectors.
His cogent account of the various foreign policy-
making actors and their relationships is enlivened by
empirical examples and by narrative from interviews.
The chapter on the making of policy is equally fresh.
Gaskarth rightly argues that most of the major aca-
demic models of foreign policy making only capture
aspects of what is done today and that foreign policy
making is no longer as distinct from domestic pro-
cesses as some in the field of IR argue. Instead, he
draws on models used in the field of public adminis-
tration – the Westminster, differentiated polity and
asymmetric power models – to provide a new account
of how foreign policy is made.
The chapters on identity and ethics demonstrate the
extent to which the substance, as well as the process, of
British foreign policy has changed. Gaskarth moves
rapidly beyond the old ‘three circles’ idea to interrogate
shifting conceptions of Britishness and Britain’s role. His
analysis of the ethical dilemmas posed by the issues that
have lately dominated Britain’s foreign policy agenda –
arms sales, intervention, terrorism and foreign aid – is
sharp and attentive to both policy makers’ concerns and
public opinion. Inevitably, the chapters on defence and
economics have Britain’s relative decline as an under-
lying theme, but Gaskarth manages that much-discussed
topic well, providing a balanced explanation of its effects
on policy making and policy outcomes.
In his introduction, Gaskarth recalls being asked on
more than one occasion during the period this book
was being written why he was bothering to study the
foreign policy of a country that once mattered in the
world, but which for many no longer does. The fin-
ished product is a more than worthy retort and will
stand for some time to come as the definitive text for
students, academics and practitioners.
Ian Hall
(Australian National University)
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
293
Rescaling the State: Devolution and the Geog-
raphies of Economic Governance by Mark
Goodwin, Martin Jones and Rhys Jones. Manches-
ter: Manchester University Press, 2012. 187pp., £65.00,
ISBN 978 0 7190 7637 4
Situated at the heart of public policy debates, and part
of Manchester University Press’ excellent Devolution
Series, Rescaling the State seeks to understand the com-
plexities of the post-devolution settlement by focusing
specifically upon the shifting institutional architectures
of economic governance and economic development.
The latter, the authors note, has been touted as one of
the key drivers for the process of devolution (with the
claim that sub-national ‘levels’ are better political units
within which to embed and develop economies in
order to address entrenched territorial inequalities) as
well as being a key devolved policy area.
The book’s primary analysis covers the period
between 1999 and 2005–6 when, so the book claims, the
most intensive activity regarding the formation and reor-
ganisation of systems of economic governance occurred
– the period between 2005–6 and 2010 being far more
stable in this regard. This in itself is fascinating to note,
marking the phase prior to the ‘Celtic Spring’ that fol-
lowed the 2007 devolved elections (when nationalists
entered government in Scotland and Wales) as being
more revolutionary in terms of developing economic
devolution than the so-called ‘second phase of devolu-
tion’ that followed. The book charts such organisational
and programmatic shifts, but also looks at the less clear
question of whether these developments have actually
enhanced or hindered the newly devolved institutions’
ability to deliver through their economic strategies.
To this end – and in recognition of a dialectical
relationship between the two – the analysis illustrates
how ‘devolution has profound implications for the
nature and practice of economic governance. ... In
turn, the “success” of economic governance has conse-
quences for further rounds of devolution’ (p. 5).To gain
purchase on this dynamic, the authors draw upon Bob
Jessop’s strategical-relation approach (STA) to the state:
‘The political institutional geography of the capitalist state is
missing in devolution research,’ they write (p. 17;
emphasis in original). This is a theoretical lacuna they
address by recalibrating an STA approach to appreciate
not only how the state is ‘hollowed out’, but also how
– as the twin aspect of the same process – it is being
294
‘filled in’, post-devolution. Describing how similar
strategies of economic development are being imple-
mented via a diversity of institutional and political
structures, the book’s conclusion is that, actually, far
from overcoming the aforementioned territorially
entrenched inequalities, the differentiated institutional
capacities resulting from the UK’s particular asymmet-
rical devolution of powers have actually increased
already uneven patterns of economic success and failure
between her composite parts. Overall, this is an insight-
ful analysis.
David S. Moon
(University of Bath)
How Labour Governments Fall: From Ramsay
Macdonald to Gordon Brown by Timothy
Heppell and Kevin Theakston (eds). Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 186pp., £55.00, ISBN
9780230361805
There is a considerable body of literature focused on
the Labour Party and how its evolution has been
shaped by its leading figures. The existing research has
particularly drawn attention to the rise of Labour, its
ideological controversies and its subsequent falls. It is a
well-trodden road of scholarship that has been thor-
oughly interrogated using a range of methodological
perspectives, and Andrew Thorpe, Steven Fielding and
Diane Hayter can justly be described as being in the
vanguard of the study of Labourism.
It would therefore be difficult to imagine how new
light can be shone upon such an already well illumi-
nated area of study. However, this impressive volume
stands out by applying clear and relevant criteria in
explaining how each Labour government fell. The
originality of the book is confirmed by the methodo-
logical inspiration drawn from Anthony Seldon’s
equally impressive 1996 volume How Tory Governments
Fall and Jim Bulpitt’s excellent statecraft model. A
similar adaption is absent from the existing literature,
thus making this book an insightful contribution to the
body of Labour scholarship.
Timothy Heppell and Kevin Theakston’s statecraft
model in this work is comprised of: (1) party manage-
ment; (2) dominance of the political argument; (3)
policy competence; and (4) electoral strategy. Each of
the chapters then strives to explain how and why each
Labour government fell. Clearly, political context
BRITAIN AND IRELAND
determines the extent to which it can be attributed to
the downfall of a given government and, indeed, it is
their asymmetrical nature that is key. As the editors
argue, ‘rarely is any one of these factors alone strong
enough to account for the defeat’ (p. 4).
The volume strongly benefits from the expertise of
its authors, with Keith Laybourn, Chris Wrigley,
Robert Crowcroft, Peter Dorey and John Shepherd
contributing alongside Timothy Heppell and Kevin
Theakston, to construct a highly credible volume that
should be of interest to political scientists and historians
alike. Although the writing style differs between the
chapters – for example, Laybourn’s chapter tends
romantically to eulogise Labour history through anec-
dotal fables, which contrasts with the evidence-based
approaches used by the other authors – this does not
overly detract from the book’s intellectual value.
In conclusion, the originality of the volume is
impressive and justifies attention. Students of British
political history and Labour Studies will find this book
to be of particular interest.
Andrew S. Crines
(University of Leeds)
Divided We Stand: The Strategy and Psychology
of Ireland’s Dissident Terrorists by John Horgan.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 203pp.,
£22.50, ISBN 978 0 19 977285 8
This book focuses on the current security threat posed
by dissident republican paramilitaries in Northern
Ireland. John Horgan analyses the actions, histories,
motivations and thinking of Violent Dissident Repub-
licans (VDRs) using open source data collected by the
International Center for the Study of Terrorism (ICST)
at Pennsylvania State University, which conducted a
two-year study on these groups.
The ICST study collected data on 662 personnel
involved in dissident republican activity and 1200
known acts carried out by dissident groups (p. xii),
which included both violent and non-violent actions.
The study sought to understand the types of individuals
participating in VDR activity and to provide a data-
driven empirical research base that can inform efforts at
the individual, team, group and community levels for
preventing, disrupting or hindering mobilisation and
recruitment to VDR groups. The research used data
from multiple sources, including literature reviews,
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
open-source media and other sources (p. 14).The book
is primarily aimed at scholars of Irish and British politi-
cal history and those with an interest in the nature of
these paramilitary groups.
Horgan outlines that the ‘lifeblood’ of these groups
is their adherence to core militant republican ideology,
but that they vary in size, geographic location, strat-
egies, ideology, structures and personalities (p. 21). He
maintains that the most important observation from
the data is that the dissident threat is on the rise and,
furthermore, that dissidents are committed to activity
that disrupts everyday life in Northern Ireland.
However, Horgan argues that despite this resurgence,
the ability of the dissidents to sustain themselves
remains unclear and it is unlikely that they will be able
to wreck the current peace process. He contends that
despite some cooperation between the various groups,
they essentially remain at odds with each other. The
nature of those involved in dissident activity is analysed
by gender, age, employment and geographic region.
Horgan also considers possible counter-VDR
strategies.
The author provides us with an excellent empirical
study of dissident republicans that is well written and
accessible to all. The book is important in that it pre-
sents a detailed quantitative study of these various
groups, which provides a useful reference point for
further research. Indeed, much of Hogan’s analysis from
the data illuminates our understanding of the dissidents.
Despite this, the book does have some weaknesses. For
example, the failure to conduct any interviews with
members of the dissident groups seems curious; as does
Horgan’s assertion that: ‘Violent Dissident Republicans
know that they have 4 years to prove whether they
really are here to stay’ (p. 179). His argument that the
centenary of the 1916 Rising will be the decisive factor
in the survival of these groups is certainly debatable and
is a conclusion that seems not to be based on any
statistical data. It also seems to downplay other possible
dangers that might help sustain the dissidents, such as a
lessening of the power of Sinn Féin in republican
communities, economic hardship, youth unemploy-
ment, an amalgamation of different dissident groups
and the possibility of overly draconian security meas-
ures being introduced by the authorities in response to
dissident activity. Consequently, it may be foolhardy to
dismiss the dissidents so easily, especially because, as
Horgan himself states, ‘there will always be some Irish
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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295
Republican group eager to take up arms in advancing
the Irish “cause” ’ (p. 4).
Martin McCleery
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Parliament and the Law by Alexander Horne,
Gavin Drewry and Dawn Oliver (eds). Oxford:
Hart, 2013. 370pp., £55.00, ISBN 9781849462952
This is a book that is clearly aimed not at the casual
reader, but at practitioners and academics from
political and legal backgrounds as well as those
who already have a considerable base knowledge of
both Parliament and the wider constitution in
Britain. This duality of approach is both useful and
problematic.
Part I covers parliamentary privilege and the rules,
enforcement and prosecution thereof. Chapter 1 pro-
vides a good overview of the privileges enjoyed by
Parliament and its members. Chapter 2 covers the rela-
tionship between privilege and freedom of speech leg-
islation. It is strengthened by providing case studies of
how this has been defined by the courts, and how it has
changed. It would have benefited from more coverage
of the House of Lords, however, which has in the past
had issues both with the rights of its members and the
relationship with the House of Commons as covered
by Parliamentary Privilege. There is also a lack of clear
tone across the section.
Part II looks at the way that Parliament operates
within the law, including the use of legal advisors,
before specifically looking at the application of the
Freedom of Information laws to the work of Parlia-
ment, the work of the select committees and the effect
of devolution. While already well-trodden ground, this
provides relevant information with regard to the work-
ings of Parliament, but it is overwhelmed by back-
ground detail.
The final part of the book looks more specifically at
the Human Rights Act and the problems surrounding
it in relation to the principle of the sovereignty of
Parliament. This part has managed the merging of the
political and legal view-points better, and it is more
joined up than the other parts of the book. Chapter 11
on the Lords Constitution Committee provides a study
of the relationship between the legislative and judicial
branches of government where the constitution is
uncodified.
296
The book lacks an overarching conclusion. This is
forgivable as it covers a broad topic. However, some
form of summing up for each section, rather than just
each chapter, may have made the book feel less like a
textbook and more like a coherent study of the rela-
tionship between Parliament and the Law. This is an
interesting read, although the lack of coherence makes
it difficult to view the book as a whole. As a compi-
lation of work it proves an excellent grounding on the
law in Parliament.
Fiona Williams
(University of Nottingham)
The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction
by Ashley Jackson. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2013. 143pp., £7.99, ISBN 978 0 19 960541 5
Scholarship on the British Empire has grown exponen-
tially in the last twenty years. In place of older empha-
ses on colonial administration, conflict and organised
nationalism, historians and other scholars now give
greater attention to culture, networks and the domestic
impact of imperialism. Ashley Jackson manages to
convey this with remarkable concision in 131 pages.
The non-historian will find this a useful introduction
to the British Empire, but also to more recent thinking
on what remains a highly contentious subject. Jackson
takes controversy head on, addressing acrimonious
debates among historians, and upsetting most of them
by presenting a lengthy survey of the merits and
demerits of British imperialism. Historians, unlike
political or social scientists, tend to shun this approach
to evaluating imperialism as simplistic and ahistorical.
Jackson justifies his audit ‘because contemporary cov-
erage of the Empire so often appears wrapped in this
debate, and because it is a natural question for anyone
interested in the subject to ask’ (p. xv).
The format and intended audience of his book argu-
ably justify this position. Museums and the media have
also found it helpful to present a moral balance sheet
when addressing the British Empire. It helps them
appeal to a wide and varied audience, even if the
general tendency is to conclude that the costs to the
Empire’s subject peoples outweighed the benefits. This
audit constitutes merely one part of a book that is
thematic rather than chronological; only one chapter
focuses on the British Empire’s ‘Rise and Fall’. Instead,
Jackson deals primarily with key analytical questions
BRITAIN AND IRELAND
and themes from basic definitions of ‘colony’, ‘domin-
ion’, ‘mandates’, ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ imperialism,
through to concepts such as ‘cultural hybridity’,
‘systems of knowledge’, ‘racialism’, ‘environmental
transformation’, ‘critics of empire’ and ‘Britain’s
global military and naval strategy’ (Jackson’s research
specialism).
In the chapter entitled ‘Engines of Expansion’, he
examines how and why Britain was able to increase its
influence across the world in relation to indigenous
societies. Jackson steers a careful course between naïve
exonerations of British imperialism and those who
might play down indigenous agency and collaboration.
The lay reader is well served by two concluding chap-
ters on the ‘Writing of the Empire Story’ and ‘Legacies’
– both of which underscore the relevance of the British
Empire to contemporary global and domestic debates.
Professor Jackson has crafted a wide-ranging yet
remarkably short introduction that successfully con-
denses recent scholarship without overwhelming the
non-expert.
N.C. Fleming
(University of Worcester)
The War Prerogative: History, Reform and Con-
stitutional Design by Rosara Joseph. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013. 242pp., £60.00, ISBN
9780199664320
This monograph is a timely addition to the literature
on the prerogative power to deploy British armed
forces. Rosara Joseph has undertaken a thorough
examination of the historical use of the war prerogative
and the interaction between the executive and the
House of Commons. Joseph rejects the orthodox con-
stitutional theory that states that the exercise of the war
prerogative has always been exclusively within the
control of the executive and that Parliament has no role
in the decision to go to war. The author convincingly
argues that practice does not fit in with the orthodox
theory. However, she does observe that the existence of
government majorities in the House of Commons
from the mid-nineteenth century onwards negated
effective parliamentary involvement in the actual
decision-making process.
Joseph is sceptical about the effectiveness of a con-
stitutional convention to give the Commons a vote on
whether to deploy British forces, as this would risk
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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BOOK REVIEWS
conferring too much discretion on the executive.While
the author argues that the decision should be placed on
a statutory footing, there is no call for the abolition of
the prerogative. Joseph regards the issue as more than
just a vote, as the Commons must be fully informed
and able to consider the merits of military action prior
to the deployment of troops. Equally, the vote must not
amount to a virtual rubber-stamping by the Commons
of the executive’s decision. Joseph argues that in order
to assist the House of Commons, a new committee
should be created to prepare a report and consider
secretive information. It is proposed that the courts
could review the executive’s non-compliance of the
proposed statutory requirement; however, there should
only be one remedy, based on the declaration of
incompatibility contained in section 4 of the Human
Rights Act 1998.
Considering the topicality of this text, its potential
readership should include academics, practitioners,
politicians and students. The author has succeeded in
making an arguable case for placing the prerogative
power onto a statutory footing. Joseph’s is a convinc-
ing argument and it provides an alternative to the
view that this should be controlled by conventions.
The author notes the limited coverage often offered
by textbooks and has demonstrated the complexity of
the historical exercise of this power. The book is
extremely well written, thoroughly researched and
contains a detailed bibliography. Joseph’s consideration
of theory and the methodology that underpin this
book have assisted in producing an interesting account
of the historical and contemporary issues surrounding
the war prerogative.
Chris Monaghan
(Coventry University, London Campus)
The Europe Dilemma: Britain and the Drama of
EU Integration by Roger Liddle. London: I.B.
Tauris, 2014. 309pp., £14.99, ISBN 9781780762234
In the current climate of British politics, there is one
particular subject that never seems far away from the
top of the political agenda: Europe. Since the 2008
financial crash and subsequent debt crisis in the
Eurozone, the salience of European integration as
a dominating issue within British politics has
increased considerably. Calls for a new British–EU
relationship have grown louder. Britain once again
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
297
faces a major new debate on what form its political
and economic relationship with Europe will take in
the future.
It is therefore with expert timing that Roger Liddle,
former Number 10 political advisor on Europe to Tony
Blair and current Chair of the Policy Network, has
contributed an excellent new volume on the relation-
ship between Britain and European integration, how it
was conducted under New Labour, and how it can be
made to work more effectively for the British and
European good in the future. It is a book on Britain
and European integration that comes from an unapolo-
getically social-democratic, pro-European perspective.
It is certainly not a book for those seeking a balanced
account, but is undoubtedly one for those seeking a
detailed and passionate argument for British
Europeanism.
The book is divided into three sections. The first
provides a short re-telling of the Conservative and
Labour legacy in relation to European integration,
arguing that each government missed opportunities to
lead in Europe and establish a positive, engaged rela-
tionship with the newly developing European political
and economic structures. So far, so conventional – at
least when it comes to books on Britain and European
integration. However, the book’s second section is a
fascinating account of European policy formation
under Tony Blair and New Labour, arguing that Blair
was more deeply committed to European reform, and
more strident in his pro-Europeanism, than many com-
mentators have suggested. Ultimately, and while there
were many European policy successes under New
Labour (deepening of the single market, enhanced
defence cooperation, new powers on cross-border
crime), Liddle argues that Blair failed in his mission to
develop a sustained positive case for Europe in Britain.
The concluding section reviews the return of Europe
to British politics under the coalition government,
arguing that David Cameron faces a very difficult task
in seeking treaty change, before concluding with a
convincing and comprehensive manifesto for European
reform.
It is a book for anyone interested in British politics
and European integration, and a new account that I
highly recommend.
Tristan Martin
(Newcastle University)
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A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s by
Alwyn Turner. London: Aurum Press, 2013. 624pp.,
£25.00, ISBN 9781781310687
Alwyn Turner argues that the ‘gap’ between the British
people and their politicians widened in the 1990s (p.
528). He offers many reasons for this development.
Parliament increasingly became the preserve of profes-
sional politicians. Many of them entered politics having
worked within the Westminster bubble as ‘postgraduate
policy wonks’ (p. 447). Turner is particularly critical of
the use of ‘spin’ (‘manipulation, dissembling and obfus-
cation’) by Tony Blair’s New Labour government (p.
334). However, he emphasises the egalitarian commit-
ment to a ‘classless society’ that Blair shared with John
Major, his Conservative predecessor in Downing Street.
While prime minister, Major sought to counter the
impression that his party believed there was ‘no such
thing as society’ and also the idea that it was ready to
neglect public services (p. 202). To this end, he intro-
duced the Citizens’ Charter – the purpose of which was
to give effect to the principle that public services should
run for the benefit of their users (p. 174). By taking this
step, Major aimed to demonstrate that he understood
how important public services were to those who
depended on them. More generally, he sought to express
his commitment to the ideal of a classless society.
While centrally concerned with what David
Blunkett described as ‘the construction of a more just
society’, New Labour had, before forming a govern-
ment, shown a strong commitment to ‘the
micromanagement of everyday life’ (p. 403). In 1996,
for example, Jack Straw proposed, the introduction of
night-time curfews for children under ten (p. 192).
Once in power, the same commitment found expres-
sion, in an intense regulatory form, in the introduction
of anti-social behaviour orders to circumscribe the
‘permitted behaviour’ of disruptive individuals (p. 436).
This was similarly apparent in the enactment of crimi-
nal offences ‘at a rate of around two per week’ (p. 437).
This approach to government prompted one New
Labour minister, Chris Mullin, to observe that ‘we are
getting a reputation as a party of busybodies’ (p. 403).
In comments such as that of Mullin, Turner finds
support for the conclusion that the gap between gov-
ernment and the governed widened in the 1990s. This
is a point he could have developed. We might see signs
of the regulatory imagination in the approach to
EUROPE
government that Mullin criticises. Politicians who exer-
cise this limited imaginative faculty view the governed
not as people, but as objects: pieces in the social jigsaw
that they seek to assemble. The upshot is a hierarchical
relationship that compromises governmental expres-
sions of commitment to egalitarianism.
Richard Mullender
(Newcastle University)
Europe
Sustainable Development and Governance in
Europe: The Evolution of the Discourse on Sus-
tainability by Pamela M. Barnes, Thomas C.
Hoerber. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. 264pp.,
£80.00, ISBN 9780415630078
Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in
1987, sustainable development has become the new
conceptual model for achieving sustainability in
Europe. Barnes and Hoerber provide the reader with
a detailed look at the evolution of the sustainability
discourse in the European Union and evaluate to
what extent ‘the conceptual model of sustainable
development has become the model for action’ in
governance structures (p. 3). By emphasising the
importance of discourse, language and ideas in their
methodological framework, the authors are in line
with the so-called ‘argumentative turn’ that rejects
the notion that policy analysis and planning are
value-free technical endeavours. The argument under-
pinning their analysis suggests ‘it was essential that a
discourse of shared values and common referents be
established amongst the participants in the discourse,
if it is to be embedded into the governance structures
responsible for sustainable development strategies’
(p. 241).
The volume is organised into three key sections,
with the first addressing the complexity of concepts
and the theoretical basis of the book. Sustainable devel-
opment is the hegemonic discourse on sustainability
that appears to meet all of the heterogeneous demands
made in political discourse and is thus seen as a win–
win situation that opens the way for consensus-
building and the establishment of democratic systems
of governance. The second section sheds light on the
impact of the evolution of political discourse upon the
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BOOK REVIEWS
development of EU energy and environmental policy.
The energy policy arena at the European level is pre-
sented as a good example of the extent to which
sustainable development objectives have already been
embedded into energy policy. The third section pre-
sents case studies at the national and sub-national levels.
While one chapter deals with the connection between
sustainability and governance in Central and Eastern
European states, the main focus lies in analysing the
discourses in the UK.
Barnes and Hoerber conclude that there is ‘not one
discourse, but many’ (p. 220). Although sustainability
functions as a series of discourses arising in response to
the perceived societal need for sustainable develop-
ment, there has simultaneously been a narrowing of the
sustainability discourse – from the two broader
extremes of industrialism versus sustainability in the
mid-1950s to the post-2010s concept of a ‘green’
economy.
Overall, Sustainable Development and Governance
in Europe provides a comprehensive insight into
the discourse of sustainability in Europe and will be
of great interest to scholars and students of
governance, sustainable development and environmen-
tal politics.
Eva Öller
(Freie Universität Berlin)
The EU Presence in International Organizations
by Spyros Blavoukos and Dimitris Bourantonis
(eds). Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. 192pp., £24.95,
ISBN 9780415522823
The focus of this book is on how the European Union
interacts with international organisations (IOs) and on
how the EU behaves in IOs as an international actor.
Three sets of questions guide the authors: What factors
influence the relations of the EU with IOs? How have
the interactions of the EU with IOs developed histori-
cally? And how have these interactions influenced the
EU and its internal institutional dynamics?
The contributions cover the fields of security and
trade and economy, while the IOs that are covered
include mainly the UN, NATO and the World Trade
Organization. The theoretical perspectives that the
authors use are similarly varied, ranging from the secu-
rity governance approach and role theory to new insti-
tutionalism and the principal-agent model.
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299
More specifically, EU–NATO relations are examined
by Sperling and Ojanen, who come to different con-
clusions regarding the future of the relationship. While
Sperling sees the EU as being a complementary and
cooperative security pillar of NATO, Ojanen highlights
that the gradual emergence of an EU caucus inside
NATO could lead to the demise of the latter. The role
of national cultures and preferences, as well as the
influence of domestic interests in EU-IO interactions
are also emphasised in the contributions of Kirchner
and Sperling and Young and Kerremans, respectively.
Additionally, the ability of the EU to exercise leader-
ship in its relations with IOs is touched upon by
Kirchner, Hill and Smith. Kirchner argues that the EU
has not managed thus far to translate its financial and
personnel contributions to IOs into a leadership role,
while Hill traces the emergence of an inner EU foreign
policy leadership group. However, Hill’s contribution
does not seem to fit well with the context of the book,
given that he looks at how this inner group can affect
the EU’s relations with IOs only very briefly in the
conclusion. Smith, for his part, argues convincingly that
a major parameter affecting the EU’s interactions with
IOs in the area of world trade is the stance and pres-
ence of the US.
The contributors to the book raise a number of
further questions regarding EU–IO interactions. The
scope of the book could, however, be expanded to
include EU relations with regional IOs from Latin
America or Southeast Asia. Despite this coverage-
related shortcoming, the volume will be of particular
interest to researchers in EU external relations and
global governance.
Dimitrios Anagnostakis
(University of Nottingham)
Party Attitudes towards the EU in the Member
States: Parties for Europe, Parties against Europe
by Nicolò Conti (ed.). Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
208pp., £80.00, ISBN 9780415622318
Edited by Nicolò Conti, this book examines the atti-
tudes of the political parties towards European integra-
tion in ten Member States. Based on the rich dataset
provided by the large-scale research of the INTUNE
project, the main aim of the book is to investigate the
parties’ attitudes to the EU through the analysis of
three main dimensions: identity, representation and
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policy scope. In order to describe these dimensions, the
various authors used an in-depth manifesto analysis
covering two decades of European elections. The evi-
dence produced by the party manifestos makes it pos-
sible for the authors to assess at least three elements:
whether parties have specific positions about some rel-
evant aspects of the integration process, and whether
their positions are representative of a more pro-
European or more Eurosceptical attitude. A further
feature is the attention devoted to the analysis of the
patterns of contestation of EU issues within the differ-
ent Member States.
The findings of the book are extremely interesting
and allow clarification of the picture concerning the
attitudes of parties and elites towards the EU. First of
all, these attitudes are not the same across the EU, but
rather follow different national patterns. The position
that parties have about the transfer of more
competences to the EU or the opinion that they have
about democracy in Brussels are mainly influenced by
national specificity (such as the structure of the political
system and economic issues).
A common pattern across Europe is the strong
support for the integration process from the socialist
parties and the more critical support from conservative
parties, concluding a reorientation process towards
Europe started in the 1990s by these party families.The
book underlines how radical parties seem to be
Eurosceptical almost everywhere, and how strong the
general trend is towards Euroscepticism: in this respect,
the new accession countries of Eastern Europe repre-
sent a real challenge because it is in this part of Europe
that an even stronger resistance to deeper integration is
growing. Another finding is that parties’ support or
opposition towards the EU varies in intensity according
to the different dimensions and issues concerning the
integration process. This means that the issue-making
and the parties’ political stance on these matters are
themselves influenced by the integration process.
Finally, as underlined by Conti, these ‘EU issues’ are
managed in the national party systems by absorption or
depoliticisation.
This book will be of particular interest to scholars
of European politics, party politics and comparative
politics.
Eugenio Salvati
(University of Pavia)
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Reflections on 1989 in Eastern Europe by Terry
Cox (ed.). Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. 246pp.,
£85.00, ISBN 9780415636032
The fall of the communist regime in Central and
Eastern Europe put the scholars in front of some
unique cases that even now, after more than twenty
years, need to be analysed. Terry Cox’s book brings
together articles initially published in a special issue of
Europe-Asia Studies and covers the initial change and
crisis within the communist bloc up to the events of
1989 and finishes with the transition to democracy and
the legacy of the past.
The first chapter of this book pinpoints the trans-
formation of the former communist bloc prior to and
post-1989, while the second chapter underlines the
evolution of the Soviet policy that opened a door to
protesters. East Germany’s and Hungary’s industrial
working class and their importance in the collapse of
the regime is analysed in the third essay, while the
Hungarian evolution during and after 1989 – poetry
and the political change, and the ‘Picnic’ together with
the shifting policy of Imre Pozsgay – provide the
subject of the next two essays.The violent days of June
1990 in Romania are underlined by John Gledhill, who
tries to discover who brought out the miners (p. 139).
The post-1989 (economic) evolution is the main point
of interest of the next two essays on the process of
emerging capitalism and the communist successor
parties versus the liberal economic reforms. Czech
public opinion on the Velvet Revolution is the subject
of the penultimate chapter, while the final essay puts a
stress on the post-1989 Slovenian and Slovakian
method of dealing with their minorities.
All of the essays collected within this book tackle
specific aspects surrounding the miraculous year 1989,
but the one that caught my attention is the essay on the
Mineriadă violent events in Romania. Well written and
detailed, it presents the chaotic days of 13–15 June 1990.
What Gledhill analyses is just one of the episodes con-
ducted by the miners in Bucharest – the most violent
one – and it shows how the new power, or the reformed
second echelon of the communist party, dealt with the
right to protest using communist methods. From January
1990 until February 1999 the miners came six times to Bu-
charest, each time imposing fear on the streets of the city.
To conclude, this book should be read not only by
scholars, but also by anyone interested in this part of
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BOOK REVIEWS
Europe because it deals with important aspects of what
exactly happened in 1989.
Ligia Niculae
(University of Bucharest)
Exporting Paradise? EU Development Policy
towards Africa since the End of the Cold War by
Tiago Faia. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Schol-
ars, 2012. 271pp., £49.99, ISBN 9 781443 841924
In Tiago Faia’s Exporting Paradise? there is not a single
table or diagram to be found, nor are there any annexes
with lists. Since the book concerns development policy,
this may raise reservations. However, after reading, I
have no doubts that the book should be listed as an
interesting and valuable study on European develop-
ment aid policy.
As the author writes on page 1, the aim of the
publication is to present and explicate the modern
nature of the European Union’s development aid for
Africa through the presentation of the nature of the
EU’s international actions. In my opinion, what distin-
guishes the monograph from others and determines its
original nature is the methodology adopted and the
way the research was conducted. The implementation
of Martha Finnemore’s Social Constructivist research
agenda allows for understanding the mechanism of the
EU’s actions in the international arena through the
analysis of standards and values that impact it, which are
constructed by other international organisations. As
opposed to methods that are most commonly used in
development policy analysis, it is a method used in
social sciences. Its adaptation to research on develop-
ment aid allows the author to create a unique research
perspective, as well as an interesting presentation of the
evolution of the EU’s development aid for Africa in the
past few decades. Above all, it allows for making a
critical evaluation and reveals the basis and assumptions
of the EU’s actions. When discussing individual provi-
sion of documents that regulate the actions for Africa,
the author challenges the originality of the EU’s policy.
He argues that, contrary to what Brussels says, its
development policy is neither unique nor leading, but
is only an adaptation of standards and policies worked
out by other international organisations. Thus, consid-
ering the financial values engaged by the EU in
supporting development in the world, Exporting
Paradise? proves that in the realm of international
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
301
development policy, the EU is still only a payer – not
a player.
The focus of the book is an asset, and helps Faia
make an intellectual contribution that will be of inter-
est to academics in, among other areas, development
studies, IR and the political and social sciences. This
study is recommended, if not necessary, reading for
further analysis of this still under-theorised EU policy
area as well as the policy of development assistance of
other international organisations. Such a book is also
particularly recommended for politicians who treat
seriously their duty of civil service and political respon-
sibility towards people in need all over the world.
Katarzyna Jarecka-Ste˛pień
(Jagiellonian University, Cracow)
Guilt, Responsibility and Denial: The Past at
Stake in Post-Milošević Serbia by Eric Gordy.
Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2013. 256pp., £42.50, ISBN 978 0 8122 4535 6
Eric Gordy addresses the controversial process of dealing
with the past in post-Milošević Serbia from a social
perspective, asking ‘how the conflicts and the crimes
committed in the course of them came to be understood
by people in Serbia’ (p. 2).The book proceeds through a
succession of ‘moments’, defined as ‘incidents where a
dramatic event or the emergence of new information
appeared to have the potential to move public under-
standing dramatically forward’ (p. xiii), and thematic
chapters. In addition, the author analyses ‘non-moments’,
or ‘incidents that illustrate the lack of motion in public
memory’ (p. 164). Despite their potential, ‘moments’ did
not promote fundamental changes in the public ap-
proach to the past. Far from being limited to their thick
description, however, the book is theoretically informed
by a distinction between legal guilt and responsibility
inspired by Karl Jaspers’ thought. For instance, following
the discussion of Djindjić’s assassination, these concepts
are applied to illustrate varying degrees of denial and
responsibility. Dealing with the past – in historical per-
spective – rarely happened and never occurred swiftly. It
is thus notable that a debate was initiated within Serbian
society. Social change, however, promoted by groups
devoted to addressing responsibility for war crimes, was
hindered by strong political constraints.
This book is required reading for scholars engaging
with social aspects of transitional justice, as well as
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anyone trying to understand Serbian political culture.
Compared to most transitional justice works drawing
on political science and law, Gordy’s approach is
methodologically innovative. Faced with contradictory
findings of early surveys (Chapter 2), he conducts an
ethnographic study of media sources that include
comments to Serbian online articles. Part of Chapter
3 draws from literary works such as war diaries.
Through this approach, Gordy shows how much the
cultural and popular aspects of Serbia’s social life are
important for understanding processes of dealing with
the past.
While readers who are not familiar with the context
might find it difficult to follow the detailed analysis at
times, this is necessary to avoid depicting public dis-
course on war crimes as an unchanging struggle
between the camps of ‘denial’ and ‘acceptance’. Overall,
Gordy responds well to the challenge of analysing con-
tested events as they unfold. However, while the start-
ing point of the study is clear (Milošević’s fall), the
author himself recognises that readers are left without
an ending. New judgements by the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, civil
society initiatives and public debates call for further
research into ‘moments’ and ‘non-moments’ of Serbia’s
reckoning with the past.
Daniela Lai
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
Pension Reforms in Central, Eastern and South-
eastern Europe: From Post-Socialist Transition
to the Global Financial Crisis by Igor
Guardiancich. Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. 340pp.,
£80.00, ISBN 9780415688987
Typical of the European state is the huge commitment
to social expenditure in the public budgets, where one
heavy item is pensions. Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development reports indicate the fol-
lowing costs for 2013 in terms of national gross domestic
product (GDP): Hungary 21.6 per cent, Poland 26.4 per
cent and Slovenia 23.8 per cent; while the International
Labour Organisation puts social expenditures in Croatia
at 21 per cent for 2011 (as the most recent available
information). Thus, organising the pensions system of a
country is both economically important and politically
salient. The former communist countries in Eastern
Europe have had to overhaul the pensions system
EUROPE
inherited from a planned economy, meaning a great deal
of politicking and shifting policy choices.
Since pensions constitute a divisible good, the poli-
tics of pensions offers several alternative ways to raise
money and give it to various groups. Igor Guardiancich
analyses how the policy processes result in various
reforms of the system, whereas an economist would
perhaps target the final outcomes of these processes in
his or her enquiry. The author masters the policy
approach very well, analysing in detail how the game of
pension reform is played out in these four countries.
Employing the Natali-Rhodes theoretical framework,
the zero sum and variable sum properties of pension
politics between politicians and the many stakeholders
are nicely covered against the context of resource scar-
city and finanancial stress.
Among other things, the findings show that all four
of these post-communist countries managed to reform
their pensions systems so that they could cope with the
financial crisis which began in 2007.Yet they did so in
very different ways, with the largest difference between
the two former Yugoslav countries, where Croatia
favoured the miser’s approach whereas Slovenia created
a generous framework. Poland favoured financial stabil-
ity over income redistribution, whereas Hungary did
the opposite. Thus, these East European countries now
have functioning pensions systems with a not insignifi-
cant replacement rate (40–70 per cent), costing
between 8 per cent (Croatia) and 17 per cent (Slovenia)
of the country’s GDP. These new systems have been
structured according to the Western model of first,
second and third pillars, where the first has been cut
back under the influence of neoliberalism.
The author explains these outcomes within a theo-
retical framework combining institutions and actors. On
the one hand, a democracy with a majoritarian bent
would lean towards the miser’s solution, while a democ-
racy with a consensual bent would be more generous.
On the other hand, and especially in Hungary, there was
ample room for the political parties and stakeholders to
exercise influence in accordance with their very different
pension system preferences, resulting in both policy and
fiscal instability. Not surprisingly, Poland appears to be
the most stable country from the perspective of pension
policy making and financial viability.
Jan-Erik Lane
(Independent scholar)
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
Turkish Berlin: Integration Policy and Urban
Space by Annika Marlen Hinze. Minneapolis: Uni-
versity of Minnesota Press, 2013. 201pp., £18.50, ISBN
978 0 8166 7815 0
This book connects immigrant integration with urban
space in the cases of Turkish immigrants in the
Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts of Berlin by focusing
on both local integration policies and self-perceptions
of the immigrants themselves. The author deals with
both sides of the integration issue by questioning the
political framing of immigrants and analysing the party
programmes of the main political parties in the Berlin
parliament. She incorporates interviews and statements
of the local policy makers and Turkish community
organisation, and explores the self-perception of immi-
grants by conducting interviews with them.
Kreuzberg and Neukölln are chosen not only
because they contain a dense Turkish population, but
also because of the conceptions of these two districts.
Kreuzberg is seen as a ‘hip’ and successfully multicul-
tural district, while Neukölln is seen as a failure of
multiculturalism and associated with high levels of
crime. After identifying general and local immigrant
integration policies, the author presents the results of
the interviews with immigrant women from different
socio-economic backgrounds in which she compares
their views about their neighbourhoods and their
reflections on local integration policies.
She argues that second-generation Turkish immi-
grants have developed a hybrid identity associated with
their neighbourhood since they do not feel they belong
‘either here’ (Germany) or ‘there’ (Turkey). They were
born and raised in Germany, but feel discriminated
against and so they cannot develop a sense of full
belonging to the German community. At the same
time, the image of the ‘motherland of Turkey’ does not
have the same meaning for them as it does for their
parents. As a result, they have developed a hybrid iden-
tity based on their neighbourhood, which combines
elements from both cultures to fill this gap, although
there are differences both in the local immigration
policies of these two districts and in the experiences of
the women who live in them.
The inclusion of both sides of the integration issue
provides a more complete picture, and the argument
about ‘hybrid neighbourhood identity’ is a very inter-
esting and valid one. One methodological concern,
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
303
however, is that the focus on the narrative produced
around the immigrant women led the author to
conduct interviews only with women; the lack of the
opinion of men in the sample decreases the
generalisability of the arguments. In terms of further
research it would be interesting to compare this study
to third-generation experiences, especially after the
recent changes in citizenship law in Germany. The
book is an interesting read and a good resource for
urban studies and immigration studies students.
Pinar Sayan
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
Inside Greek Terrorism by George Kassimeris.
London: C. Hurst, 2013. 176 pp., £16.99, ISBN 978
1849042833
In 2002 the long story of the notorious Revolutionary
Organisation 17 November (17N), ‘Europe’s most
elusive terrorist group’, finally ended (p. 1). However, the
rapid dismantling of this nationalistic left-wing group did
not mark the end of Greek terrorism. On the contrary,
in recent years, the baton of violence has been picked up
by new leftist and anarchist groups.This concise volume
takes a careful look at the evolution of Greek terrorist
organisations from the mid-1970s to around 2012. The
main sources of the work are primary source material
and original interviews with imprisoned group members
and other relevant actors (pp. 4–5).
Inside Greek Terrorism is organised into eight chapters.
After a short introduction, in Chapter 2 George
Kassimeris outlines the political and social conditions
of violence in post-war Greece, with an emphasis on
the years after the collapse of the Colonels’ regime in
1974. In Chapters 3 and 4 the author examines the
activities and the organisational dynamics of 17N
through the life histories of three former members:
Dimitris Koufodinas, the leader of operations, who
took responsibility for the entire 17N experience;
Patroklos Tselentis, the group’s biggest pentito; and
Sotiris Kondylis, who dissociated himself from the
armed struggle. Kassimeris argues that the three biog-
raphies offer valuable insights into the evolution of this
small close-knit group, based on personal bonds.
However, he is aware that this approach would prob-
ably not work for other, larger terrorist organisations
(p. 3; see also pp. 56–7 and 118). Chapter 5 reconstructs
the path of the Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA),
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a Marxist-Leninist organisation that was responsible for
a systematic campaign of low-level bombings from
1975 to the mid-1990s. In particular, Kassimeris follows
the story of Christos Tsigaridas, the only militant who,
after his arrest in 2003, admitted his past involvement
in ELA activities. Chapters 6 and 7 analyse the rise of
a ‘new generation’ of terrorist groups, represented by
Revolutionary Struggle (RS), active from 2003 to
2010, and the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire (CCF),
which emerged in 2008. This part of the work is
mainly based on the analysis of the groups’ communi-
qués and announcements and public letters from
imprisoned members. In Chapter 8, the author con-
cisely reviews a few factors that can explain why
terrorism ‘has become a permanent fixture of
Greek contemporary life’ (p. 116), as recent events
demonstrate.
In conclusion, Inside Greek Terrorism is a well-
researched work on an important topic. It will be of
interest to academics, experts and general readers alike.
Francesco Marone
(University of Pavia)
Informal Governance in the European Union:
How Governments Make International Organi-
zations Work by Mareike Kleine. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2013. 214pp., £32.95, ISBN
9780801452116
In Informal Governance in the European Union, Mareike
Kleine presents a novel theory to explain the occur-
rence of informal policy making in international
organisations. Her argument focuses on governments’
demand for flexibility in times of uncertainty. In these
circumstances, adhering to the formal procedures
would force an EU Member State to choose between
reneging on its prior commitments and opposing
domestic interests. The international organisation thus
tolerates a deviation from formal governance to ensure
its long-term survival. To avoid the problem of moral
hazard, a neutral – yet politically sensitive – adjudicator
is required. This role, the author argues, is occupied by
the rotating Presidency of the Council. The resulting
hypothesis states that we are more likely to observe
practices of informal governance in policy domains
characterised by high uncertainty. To test this hypoth-
esis, the author first provides a procedure to identify
formal and informal modes of governance. This
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procedure is then applied to the process of agenda-
setting, decision making and implementation in the
EU. Using historical data, the hypothesis is tested by
comparing the occurrence of informal governance in a
policy area characterised by low uncertainty (agricul-
ture) to one of high uncertainty (the rest). Two addi-
tional mini-cases are used to elaborate the role of the
Council Presidency as adjudicator.
The author provides a compelling argument for
understanding the prevalence of informal governance.
Using a clear conceptualisation, she exposes various
practices in EU policy making that have been docu-
mented frequently, but have rarely been studied in a
coherent framework. Despite the theoretical lucidity,
the empirical analysis would have benefited from
further elaboration. Why certain cases have been clas-
sified as formal or informal is occasionally left unex-
plained. Similarly, the case studies elaborating the role
of the Council Presidency – while convincing – raise
questions of external validity. However, this does not
diminish the strength of this work. The theoretical
framework, the method developed to distinguish
formal from informal practices as well as the richness
of the historical data all add up to a strong foundation
for subsequent empirical research. Elaborating the
dimensions across which we observe variation in the
level of uncertainty will be crucial for assessing more
rigidly how the proposed ‘liberal regime theory’
fares against the alternative explanations for informal
governance.
In sum, I recommend Informal Governance in the Euro-
pean Union to students, scholars and practitioners inter-
ested in decision making, public administration and
international organisations.
Johan Adriaensen
(KU Leuven)
Crucible of Resistance: Greece, the Eurozone
and the World Economic Crisis by Christos
Laskos and Euclid Tsakalotos. London: Pluto Press,
2013. 181pp., £15.99, ISBN 9780745333809
The financial crisis of 2007–8, and the onset of the
Eurozone crisis in 2010, have debunked the accepted
wisdom that the uneven development of various
European states has been overcome. No longer is it
possible to consider that we have witnessed an equali-
sation through convergence and catch-up in an
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
economic, social and political sense. Taking up such a
position in this superb volume, Christos Laskos
and Euclid Tsakalotos trace the contours of the devel-
opment and restructuring that have brought the
Eurozone in particular to a point of almost systemic
turmoil.
In order to challenge the position outlined above,
the authors posit four major points. The first of these
concentrates on Greece’s ‘non-exceptionality’. Under-
mining the ‘dominant narrative’ of the crisis – a story of
fiscal irresponsibility and clientelism – they trace
Greece’s development to demonstrate that the
neoliberal trajectory that was pursued widely across
Europe also figured as the dominant path to moderni-
sation in Greece. Second, while the Greek state is a
particular ‘neoliberal settlement’, it is not sufficient to
focus purely on the national scale. By broadening the
focus, Laskos and Tsakalotos go on to link Greek devel-
opment to a wider shift in capitalist accumulation, in
which the financial system became dominant, social
inequality increased dramatically, and macroeconomic
imbalances, especially with the institutionalisation of
the euro, created unsustainable trajectories. Third, there
is a focus on how, in the post-2008 period, there has
been little movement away from the trajectory that has
persisted since the 1970s, locating this as a failure of
social democracy to attend to the worst vagaries of the
response while also emphasising the role of class
instinct with those keen on enhancing profitability.This
renewed neoliberal path then pre-figures the final,
fourth thesis – namely that there is ‘no turning back’.
With the failure of the left to sufficiently organise
against restructuring and adjustment, the authors con-
sider it likely that a more authoritarian form of
neoliberalism will surface in order to offset the lack
of popular consensus in Greece for the ‘reforms’
pursued.
With a methodological approach that moves us away
from a purely national explanation of the crisis and its
response, and with a continually rich body of empirical
detail throughout, Crucible of Resistance is simply a must-
read for those who want truly to understand how we
got here, and what is to be done in pursuing a more
progressive response than that which currently domi-
nates the political landscape.
Jamie Jordan
(University of Nottingham)
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
305
Divided Nations and European Integration by
Tristan James Mabry, John McGarry, Margaret
Moore and Brendan O’Leary (eds). Philadelphia,
PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. 404pp.,
£52.00, ISBN 978 0 8122 4497 7
This edited volume on divided nations and European
integration is an insightful addition to the National and
Ethnic Conflict in the 21st Century series from the
University of Pennsylvania Press. Traditionally, the lit-
erature has focused upon the problematic nature of
divided nations. This volume, under the editorial team
of Tristan Mabry, John McGarry, Margaret Moore and
Brendan O’Leary, moves away from the traditional
approach and explores the possibility of divided nations
as a desirable political community. In the introduction,
McGarry and O’Leary define a ‘divided nation’ as con-
taining leaders and organisations that minimally aspire
to establish or re-establish closer linkages between the
segments of their own nation partitioned among states
(p. 5). This definition is adopted across the volume
ensuring a consistent approach throughout.
To ensure that the book effectively analyses the
development of nations and national homelands
divided by sovereign borders within and around the
current and prospective frontier of the EU (p. 1), the
editors have selected a wide range of contributors.
There are contributions on current EU Member States
France, Spain and Ireland as well as contributions on
prospective Member States including Albania and
Turkey. Furthermore, the contributions are divided into
two categories: those that evaluate the effects of Euro-
pean integration on state borders, and those that evalu-
ate the impact of European integration on minority
rights and minority self-government. This provides an
overall comprehensive examination of European inte-
gration and the divided nation.
The chapters demonstrate that, at best, European
integration has produced mixed results. While Wolff
analyses the development of Germany into a good
‘European Neighbour’ and Fraser outlines how Croatia
has embraced EU norms on integration, this must be
contrasted with difficulties faced in Turkey, Greece and
Cyprus due to European integration, as examined by
Bahcheli and Noel. The editors concede that their
normative claims of the EU being able to address the
aspirations of divided nations may not be as achievable
as at first suggested. In the concluding chapter, it is
306
accepted that internal state history cannot be over-
looked by the EU as the key factor influencing the
development of integration and minority right schemes
within the divided nations. This acknowledgement of
weakness in the introductory claims makes the book all
the more credible. Overall, the book is well constructed
and would serve as a useful tool to all academic scholars
owing to its successful balance of background detail
and critical analysis.
Elyse Wakelin
(University of Leicester)
Why Europe Matters: The Case for the European
Union by John McCormick. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2013. 198pp., £14.99, ISBN 978 1 137
01687 4
In recent years the voices of those sceptical about the
European project have become louder than ever. In the
face of these criticisms, John McCormick sets out to
make the case for the European Union, aiming to
demonstrate Why Europe Matters. Not intended as an
academic treatise, the book instead focuses on inform-
ing citizens, policy makers and EU students in general
on what Europe is about, where it comes from and
where it might be heading in years to come.
The fundamental argument centres on the benefits
that integration has brought to Europe, paving the way
for political, economic and social changes that have
improved the lives of its citizens. This debate, however,
has often been distracted by misinterpretations and
misinformation. McCormick’s aim is to respond to
these sceptics, providing a better understanding of inte-
gration and the EU, while debunking myths that have
clouded the discussion.
The argument starts by examining what the EU is,
describing it as ‘a confederation, albeit with some
federal qualities’ (p. 27).The book then sets out to look
at six areas where integration has benefited Europe.
Integration has brought about peace, democracy, the
benefits of a single market with a single currency, and
the advantages of propelling Europe to become a sig-
nificant global player. The EU has also provided the
opportunity for citizens to become part of an inclusive
community that is framed by a unique political model
serving as an example for the rest of the world. In
addition to the benefits of integration, McCormick
addresses its failings as well, though frequently pointing
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out that problems arise not because integration has
gone too far, but often because it has not gone far
enough. He concludes with an outline of the possible
paths that the EU might take in the future, while
suggesting areas that require improvement.
Why Europe Matters is a clear, concise and enlight-
ening account of European integration, effectively
achieving its aim of informing both Europhiles and
Eurosceptics about the main issues in the debate.
Although the narrative may sometimes seem to be
overly enthusiastic about the benefits of integration,
McCormick prevents accusations of bias by addressing
criticisms and admitting to the shortcomings of the
EU. His discussion is backed up by evidence from polls,
surveys and databases, which increases the effectiveness
of his argument, and perhaps may even succeed in
encouraging some Eurosceptics to examine Europe
from a different perspective.
Fanni Toth
(University of Nottingham)
Resilient Liberalism in Europe’s Political
Economy by Vivien A. Schmidt and Mark
Thatcher (eds). Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2013. 447pp., £19.99, ISBN 9781107613973
Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007–8,
through to the Eurozone crisis which began in 2010,
there has been much discussion about the political
economic trajectory taken since the 1970s. This period
has been dominated by neoliberal ideas, and it would
have seemed sensible that over the last half a decade the
lack of efficacy in producing sustained and equitable
outcomes, both economically and socially, would have
sounded their death-knell. However, in this volume
edited by Vivien Schmidt and Mark Thatcher, it is
argued that this has not been the case: neoliberalism
continues to reign supreme. The primary aim of this
volume is therefore to explain this resilience.
In the initial chapter of Resilient Liberalism in
Europe’s Political Economy, Schmidt and Thatcher lay
out much of the framework used to pursue the above
aim. Neoliberalism is considered to be a political
project to restore capitalist class power against the gains
of labour, with ‘watchwords’ including ‘liberalisation’,
‘privatisation’, ‘commodification’ and ‘competition’.
Utilising discursive institutionalism, they seek to
understand how neoliberal ideas are situated at various
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
levels, including philosophical assumptions, in order to
provide some kind of worldview – paradigmatic ideas
about macro-economic policies and Keynesian versus
neoliberalism, for instance – and to specific policy
programmes such as corporate governance. These ideas
are then analysed against five lines of resilience, includ-
ing the flexibility of neoliberalism, the gaps between
rhetoric and reality, the strength of discourse in
debates, the power of particular interests and institu-
tional embeddedness. The individual chapters focus on
particular issues including fiscal conservatism, the
welfare state, the state in a broader sense, the euro,
regulation of markets, financial regulation, labour
markets and corporate governance.This is along with a
specific country focus as appropriate, including the
UK, Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Italy, France, and
Central and Eastern Europe. Much of the debate that
takes place emphasises neoliberalism’s resilience
through the first two hypotheses – namely its flexibil-
ity and the gap between rhetoric and reality.
While there are a number of convincing accounts,
the volume brings to the fore the persistent problem
with an exclusive focus on ideas. It leads us to wonder
how a wider material reality, the exploitative dynamics
of capitalist accumulation, assist and possibly constitute
the resilience of such ideas in the first place. In essence,
more interaction with critical perspectives on the
development of Europe’s political economy may hold
the key, in future, to providing a more holistic, and
therefore more satisfactory, account of neoliberalism’s
success – past, present and possibly future.
Jamie Jordan
(University of Nottingham)
Democratic Decision-Making in the EU: Tech-
nocracy in Disguise by Anne Elizabeth Stie.
Abingdon: Routledge, 2012. 242pp., £80.00, ISBN
9780415525756
This book evaluates the democratic legitimacy of deci-
sion making in the European Union by focusing on
the democratic qualities of the ordinary legislative pro-
cedure (OLP), which is the EU’s main legislative
process applicable to most policy areas. The OLP (or
the codecision procedure as it was known before the adop-
tion of the Lisbon Treaty) is assessed according to the
normative standards of the discourse theoretical version
of deliberative democracy.
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307
The book is divided into two parts. The first intro-
duces the theory of deliberative democracy and
provides an overview of the working mechanism and
the historical evolution of the OLP. Anne Stie devel-
ops an evaluative framework that approximates delib-
erative democracy with five normative criteria: (1) the
democratic deliberative meeting places; (2) the inclu-
sion of affected and competent parties; (3) openness
and transparency; (4) the neutralisation of asymmetri-
cal power relations; and (5) the decision-making
capacity.
The second part presents an empirical evaluation of
the OLP. In five chapters, each criterion of deliberative
democratic legitimacy is operationalised by empirical
indicators and the OLP is assessed against these require-
ments.The book closes with a discussion of the demo-
cratic qualities and deficits of the OLP and the benefits
(though not the limitations) of the evaluative scheme.
The main argument is that while the OLP does
possess certain democratic qualities, they are not fully
realised.Thus, the OLP does not fully comply with the
requirements of a democratically legitimate decision-
making process. More specifically, the findings suggest
that the democratic deficits of the OLP stem from the
internal organisation of the Council and the institution
of trialogues (informal meetings between selected rep-
resentatives from the European Parliament, the Council
and the Commission).
Overall, Stie succeeds in her goal of operationalising
deliberative democracy and of providing a systematic
analysis of decision making under the OLP. Neverthe-
less, the theoretical framework operates with only one
conception of democracy and democratic legitimacy.
The book thus delivers a well-argued, but narrow
evaluation of the EU’s decision-making process, which
limits the possibility of a broader generalisation.
Although Stie hints that ‘the findings are related to the
quest for democracy beyond the nation-state’ (p. 168),
she does not elaborate on the implications of the analy-
sis for transnational democracy. Even though the book
is not always an easy read and the arguments could
have been presented in a more accessible way, it pro-
vides a well-researched and methodologically sound
assessment of the default decision-making procedure in
the EU.
Martin Duchac
(University of Trento)
308
Key Controversies in European Integration by
Hubert Zimmermann and Andreas Dür (eds).
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 262pp., £24.99,
ISBN 978 1 137 00614 1
This book is an interesting and accessible general text-
book on European integration, which targets a wide
audience of academics, practitioners and interested
general readers. It aims to help readers engage with key
controversies over the EU and develop their own argu-
ments.The book maintains that European integration is
a highly contested political project, as current events
such as the failure of the Constitutional Treaty and the
Eurozone crisis vividly illustrate. If the thesis is not quite
astonishing, the format of the book is innovative.
Zimmermann and Dür have selected fourteen pairs of
authors and assigned each pair a research question sur-
rounding a key controversy over European integration.
Each chapter consists of an introduction by the editors
followed by short contributions by two authors taking
opposing positions.The editors use this method of cou-
pling in order to guide readers to the heart of academic
debates over the EU in a lively and dialectic way.
Among the fourteen diverse questions addressed in
the book are: How efficient is the EU? Did the Lisbon
Treaty make it more supranational? How much power
do judges have in EU politics? Does the EU suffer
from a democratic deficit? Is a common European
identity arising among EU citizens? What about the
future of the euro and EU financial regulation? How
successful are EU agricultural and cohesion policies?
How influential are lobbyists in EU foreign economic
policies? And is the EU a normative power or a materi-
alist one?
Because of strict word limits, the authors go
straight to the point and make clear arguments. They
are also always engaging, critical and deliberately pro-
vocative. A weakness of the book is its very short
concluding chapter. Andreas Dür notes in the final
chapter that ‘taking a position on one debate seems to
a large extent to determine which position one takes
on another debate’ (p. 234), but there is no clear
explanation why this is the case. In fact, he only hints
that the long-lasting supranationalist-intergovern-
mentalist debate may inspire commentators’ position-
ing on other issues. The conclusion would have been
more interesting had the editors elaborated on this
point.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Despite this reservation, the book is an enjoyable
read and will appeal to Eurosceptics and Europhiles
alike. Most chapters are well written and will be useful
particularly as supplementary reading for undergraduate
courses in European integration.
Hikaru Yoshizawa
(Waseda University)
Asia and the Pacific
Chinese Social Policy in a Time of Transition by
Douglas J. Besharov and Karen Baehler (eds).
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 301pp.,
£69.95, ISBN 9780199990313
This book is an edited volume consisting of fourteen
chapters. With a focus on China, it mainly examines
social policies in education, public health, and social
security, protection and benefits. In the introduction,
the editors argue that there are new paradigms of social
protection emerging from the Chinese government’s
efforts to blend socialist principles with the realities of
a market economy. China’s ability to adapt to the new
phase of transition lies in its potential to make break-
throughs in social protection.
The next two chapters compare the cases of China
and Vietnam. Chapter 2 explores the market-Leninism
of social policy by comparing these two socialist coun-
tries. Both these countries have expanded their social
programmes, but the expansions have taken quite dif-
ferent forms. Chapter 3 analyses national household
surveys collected in the early 2000s in the two coun-
tries and finds that China spent, on average, signifi-
cantly more on cash and in-kind benefits than did
Vietnam. But in China more social spending has flown
into urban areas compared to rural areas. Chapter 4
further identifies two additional types of transition in
China – namely ‘ageing’ and ‘the shift out of agricul-
ture’ – in addition to the market transition, and analyses
how these transitions interact with employment and
pension policies.
As Chapters 5 and 6 demonstrate, there are signifi-
cant regional and workplace variations in terms of
social insurance provisions. Although there have been
rural-urban disparities in social insurance coverage, the
introduction of rural cooperative medical insurance has
built a large, universal scheme for rural residents. Chap-
ters 7–10 analyse revenue and expenditure data to
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
explore China’s fiscal capacity across regions and how
the state should support rural-to-urban migrants’ chil-
dren and ethnic monitories. Although the state has
improved access to education for migrant children in
the cities, this remains a controversial issue because it is
related to the benefits associated with one’s hukou
(household registration) status and redistribution of
social benefits between rural and urban hukou holders
in the cities. The remaining four chapters explore the
implementation and implications of social policy in
communities and among sub-groups such as men and
women, and among HIV/AIDS patients.
Overall, this book is one about the pioneering
attempts to help China move forward along its transition
path to improving social policy. It is successful in provi-
ding rich case studies, solid empirical evidence, and
strong policy implications and recommendations.Thus it
is suitable for researchers, practitioners and policy
makers.
Zhiming Cheng
(University of Wollongong, Australia)
China Across the Divide: The Domestic and
Global in Politics and Society by Rosemary Foot
(ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 231pp.,
£19.99, ISBN 9780199919888
This magnificent volume covers many important
aspects of China’s external relations. It may also inspire
a wide range of scholars to reconsider the necessity of
some artificial divides within political studies. In her
introduction, editor Rosemary Foot highlights that this
book aims to demonstrate that a full and sophisticated
understanding of China’s role as an unconventional
rising global power requires scholars to look beyond
the conventional disciplinary divides. The subsequent
three parts successfully achieve this goal.
The three chapters in Part I all concentrate on the
domestic ideational debates that shape China’s foreign
policies. William A. Callahan notices citizen intellec-
tuals’ challenge against the state’s monopoly on defin-
ing China’s place in the world, concluding that such
voices may intensify tensions between China and the
West. Feng Zhang suggests that the exceptionalism
among scholars and officials in China, albeit incapable
of determining policies, can become an important
source for the ideas that may shape or constrain
policies. Robert S. Ross argues that the emerging
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
309
nationalism was the domestic source of China’s ‘Asser-
tive Diplomacy’ in 2009–10.
The two chapters in Part II are both devoted to the
impacts of transnational actors and factors on China.
While Frank N. Pieke investigates China’s response
towards the increasing number of immigrants from
richer countries, Karl Gerth demonstrates that ‘extreme
markets’ for babies and wives, sexual services, organs
and endangered species in China have led to negative
and largely unintended transnational consequences.
The last three chapters in Part III all focus on global
issues in which China plays a significant part. Andrew
Walter describes China’s pressures and reactions regard-
ing the global imbalances. Gudrun Wacker looks at
China’s interpretation and construction on the concept
of human rights. And Joanna I. Lewis discusses the
domestic and international factors that shape China’s
environmental policy.
This book offers invaluable information on and
insights into the actors and factors that shape China’s
emergence on the global stage, so it will undoubtedly
appeal to scholars of both China’s domestic politics and
external relations. In addition, by demonstrating that
China’s domestic and foreign politics are unseparated
from and often interdependent on each other, this book
invites such scholars to talk to, learn from and cooperate
with each other. Furthermore, by using China as a case
study, this book calls on political researchers to recon-
sider the divide between studies on domestic politics and
international relations. While the division of labour in
academia is absolutely necessary, it should not become an
obstacle against our comprehensive understanding of
actual political issues in the real world.
Yu Tao
(University of Oxford)
Identity as Reasoned Choice: A South Asian Per-
spective on the Reach and Resources of Public
and Practical Reason in Shaping Individual Iden-
tities by Jonardon Ganeri. London: Continuum,
2012. 240pp., £70.00, ISBN 978 1 4411 9657 6
Although academic discussions around identity politics
in India are plenty, there are few works that delve into
dialogical traditions in Indian pasts that contributed to
the formation of the modern Indian identity. Jonardon
Ganeri’s book is an attempt to that end. For those who
are familiar with Amartya Sen’s 2005 book The Argu-
310
mentative Indian, this work serves as a sequel. The lan-
guage used is crisp and is as accessible to the layman as
to the expert. The book shows the author’s familiarity
with Indian philosophical debates in antiquity.
Ganeri, comparing argumentative traditions in classi-
cal philosophy of the West and India, shows the central-
ity of rational dialogical process in the adoption of an
individual’s identity. The book revolves around the
ethical premise that ‘a contemporary identity should
avail itself in a substantive way of resources of reason
from the whole of the past’ (p. 11), and the author uses an
array of sources, from ritual texts of ancient India to
works of modern Indian intellectuals, to reinforce his
argument. Identity as Reasoned Choice will be of much
interest to students of identity politics and pluralism, as
well as those exploring philosophical traditions of India.
However, the book’s claim to present ‘a South Asian
perspective’ seems overambitious when South Asian
countries apart from India are not even mentioned.The
author’s references are largely Sanskrit-Hindu and
Buddhist texts – all having their origins in India alone.
He excludes discussion on the role played by Islam and
Sikhism in modifying Indian identities as well as the
intervention of Christianity, which saw the conversion
of millions of lower castes who sought to escape the
brutality of the Hindu caste system.
Likewise, some of the Sanskrit texts like the Manu
Smriti and the Ramayana, whose positive contributions
and ethical content are appreciated by Ganeri, have
been extensively critiqued in the political discourse of
lower caste movements in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. The absence of any reference to the same, or
to how lower castes envisioned their idea of identity,
makes the book incomplete. Although Ganeri claims to
be opposed to ‘constricted understandings of India’ (p.
226), his omission of several socially and politically
significant Indian intellectual traditions inadvertently
contributes to that.
Karthick Ram Manoharan
(University of Essex)
China, India and the End of Development Models
by Xiaoming Huang, Alexander C. Tan and Sekjar
Bandyopadhyay (eds). London: Palgrave Macmillan,
2012. 294pp., £60.00, ISBN 978 0 230 30158 0
In China, India and the End of Development Models the
authors analyse whether the striking economic growth
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
of two of Asia’s emerging economies, China and India,
could be aggregated into a common model of eco-
nomic development. While China and India do share
rapid economic growth – said to see them eventually
overtake even the developed economies – they each
have very different socio-political systems. Xiaoming
Huang, one of the book’s editors, recognises this
divergence. Yet, he argues that since China and India’s
economic development seems highly peculiar com-
pared to that of Western countries, it deserves to be
investigated academically. In fact, although several
studies have looked at the rise of China and India and
their impact on other major economies, not much has
been written on the uniqueness of their economic
development.
The book consists of ten chapters, accompanied by
an introduction of the development experiences of
China and India, and a brief section about traditional
development models. The first three chapters focus on
the economic factors that brought about China and
India’s growth, while the ensuing four chapters base
their findings on non-economic factors. The last three
chapters look at the purpose and value of fast eco-
nomic growth and development. The concluding
chapter summarises the findings and gives a value
judgement.
The book is for expert readers. A strong background
in political economics is required, together with an
awareness of the socio-economic contexts of China
and India. In fact, by comparing two very different
countries, the reader confronts the very limits of such a
choice. This is evident in several chapters, where the
link between China and India’s economic growth is
not so obvious. Sometimes, the reader is left in doubt
whether the two models really can be compared. This
is especially the case with India, as the world’s largest
democracy with a multiparty system. Meanwhile
China, as a one-party state, can be politically epito-
mised as the place where the government gets what the
government wants. Moreover, the book does not prop-
erly address issues such as income inequality and the
ageing population, which are major Chinese concerns.
Overall, the book is a genuine attempt to bring
together the experiences of the world’s most populated
and economically sound countries. Nevertheless, the
experiences of China and India – the editors conclude
– are perhaps ‘not so profoundly unique to require a
model to capture their form and substance’ (p. 266).
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
Nor does their extraordinary growth support a more
traditional model of development.
Cristian Talesco
(Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
The Troubled Triangle: Economic and Security
Concerns for the United States, Japan and China
(Asia Today Series) by Takashi Inoguchi and John
Ikenberry (eds). New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2013. 276pp., £57.50, ISBN 9781137321992
While this book, edited by two (Japanese and Ameri-
can) scholars, lacks sharp focus on specific topic(s), it
seeks to examine the character of the geopolitical tri-
angle of the US, Japan and China, and how it has
evolved over two decades. The basic argument of this
nine-chapter volume is that the inconsistency between
economic attractiveness and security motivation poses
complex problems for the triangle made up of the
world’s first, second and third largest economies.
The book claims that in terms of ‘economic attrac-
tiveness’, the US has global currency, Japan has high
technology and China has manufacturing and market
power. But my opposing view is that the US dollar is
now in danger, Japan’s once-mighty technology indus-
try is flagging, and India, with its booming middle-class
market, has the potential to replace China as a manu-
facturing hub. In terms of ‘security motivation’, accord-
ing to the editors, the US has primacy, Japan has
alliance and China seeks autonomy. However, the book
has not properly answered the questions regarding
whether or not the US is still able to retain its
hegemony with the emergence of a multipolar inter-
national order, and whether a declining US could
maintain the will and wherewithal to practically defend
Japan (its most dependable ally) against Chinese attack
at a time when the Japan-China confrontation over the
Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands is growing, nor whether
China’s efforts to gain strategic autonomy rest largely
on its ambition towards becoming the pre-eminent
regional and global leader when Washington, with its
‘pivot’ or ‘rebalance’ strategy, is reportedly destabilising
the Asia-Pacific by boosting its military presence in this
region.
Despite this, a prime goal of the editors is to prove
that security relations among these three partners in the
triangle might be locked in a competitive, irreversible
and dangerous situation regardless of their existing
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
311
deeper ‘economic’ interdependence. But essentially this
volume is supported neither by engaging in a theoreti-
cal approach of ‘global political economy’ with more
compelling arguments, nor by providing any chapter
written by involved scholars. As the book’s title stands,
the work should also have confidently determined
some useful directions for the future of this triangle,
which is threatened by distrust in strategic rivalries and
tense relationships, even though this triangle is arguably
important for helping transform Asia and set a multi-
lateral cooperative world on a stable path to growth
and peace. Instead, the editors conclude with a disap-
pointing comment: ‘More uncertainty is to come and
should be kept in mind’ (p. 10).
Even though this co-edited book is narrowly
focused with a traditional style and approach, some
grand strategic thoughts by renowned experts repre-
senting all three of the troubled countries in the tri-
angle are reflected in it. This timely piece, with its
crisply written introduction, might still be of interest to
those who specialise in security studies, foreign policy
and IR.
Monir Hossain Moni
(Asia Pacific Institute for Global Studies (APIGS))
Central Asia in International Relations: The
Legacies of Halford Mackinder by Nick Megoran
and Sevara Sharapova (eds). London: Hurst, 2013.
332pp., £45.00, ISBN 9781849042437
The contemporary positioning of Central Asia in the
study of world politics tends to reveal the unease of the
mainstream to come to terms with the complexity and
contradictions of regional affairs. As a result, many
observers have resorted to referring to Halford
Mackinder and his conceputalisation of a regional
‘great game’, which conjures up memories of the
nineteenth-century contest for influence between
Britain and Russia. Bringing together a host of inter-
national organisations, states, multinational corporations
and non-governmental actors, the contemporary
re-enactment of the great game has rekindled the
clichéd imagery of ‘land of discord’, ‘pulpit of the
world’,‘geographic pivot of history’,‘grand chessboard’,
‘the disparate and anarchic theatre of global geopolitics’
and so on, which seems to attest to the continuing
influence of Mackinder’s ideas on current frameworks
for explanation and understanding.
312
This volume, edited by Nick Megoran and Sevara
Sharapova, aims to unpack these terms by going
beyond merely paying lip service to Mackinder’s
thought. In the process, the volume offers probably one
of the most detailed accounts to date of the history and
contemporary positioning of Central Asia in the study
and practice of world affairs. The ten contributions to
the volume are divided into three sections. The first
one provides a comprehensive analysis of Mackinder’s
engagement with Central Asia, especially his considera-
tions of imperialism and geopolitics.The second part of
the volume explores how Mackinder’s ideas ‘travelled’
(p. 115) to the region and became a dominant frame-
work for the analysis of Central Asian affairs. Finally, in
the third part, the contributors offer innovative expla-
nations of the current patterns of international inter-
action in Central Asia using Mackinder’s analytical
framework as a template for their investigations.
In this way, the collection offers a rare but sophisti-
cated and detailed consideration of Central Asia that
challenges entrenched perceptions of the alleged pas-
sivity of the region. Instead, even though local (and
localised), Central Asian affairs are profoundly and deeply
enmeshed in global networks of relations – something
that Halford Mackinder was able to recognise more than
a century ago.The erudition and detail of the contribu-
tions included in this edited volume would therefore be
of interest not only to scholars and students of Central
Asian studies and political geography, but also to those
engaged in geopolitical analysis, international affairs,
comparative politics and global history.
Emilian Kavalski
(Australian Catholic University)
Handbook of Politics in Indian States: Regions,
Parties and Economic Reforms by Sudha Pai
(ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 443pp.,
£42.50, ISBN 9 780198 081739
State politics in India has become increasingly significant
as a sub-field of political studies for a variety of reasons.
The dominance of the Congress Party in Indian politics
lasted until the mid-1960s.The post-Nehruvean era was
sparked by anti-Congress sentiments that led to non-
Congress governments in many states. Following these
developments, the Indian states started playing a defining
role in electoral politics as coalition partners to the
alliances at the centre.Thereafter, post-liberalisation, the
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
states in India found greater financial freedom and more
autonomy vis-à-vis the centre.
Most of the literature on Indian politics focuses on
national politics, but The Handbook of Politics in Indian
States marks a shift in this trend and deals primarily
with state politics. It gives a succinct account of the
transformation of democracy in India, weaving the
entire analysis together.
This volume focuses on various aspects across three
broad themes: regions, parties and economic reforms.
Democratisation and regionalisation of politics resulted
in the rise of regional parties, identity politics and social
movements, along with changes in the party system and
electoral politics in the states. Economic reform has
additionally shaped state politics around issues of
growth, equity and governance. One can see the
changing contours of India’s democratic politics and
the consequences of this within the states. The rela-
tionship between the centre and the states has also
become an important factor in Indian politics.
The volume is divided into four parts. The first part
deals with India’s federal structure, the principle of lin-
guistic reorganisation of states, democratisation and
regionalisation. The second part focuses on political
parties and electoral politics in India. It also deals with
political developments such as the decline of the Con-
gress Party and collapse in its dominance, the emergence
of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as an alternative, and
the shift towards a multiparty system. The third part
describes social movements and politics in the states.The
five chapters in this section address specific movements
in five states that have in recent years impacted on state
politics by creating a new ‘pattern’. The last part focuses
on economic reforms and state politics while highlight-
ing India’s transformation from a mixed economy to a
market-oriented economy with the adoption of a Struc-
tural Adjustment Programme.
The contributors to this volume are experts in their
areas and eminent scholars have contributed well-
researched essays on politics in the Indian states that
show the shifting of power towards the disadvantaged
and marginalised sections of society leading to a
strengthening of democracy.
This book is a worthy read for students and scholars
of political science, political economy and sociology.
Md Irfan
(Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical
Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Rela-
tions by Zheng Wang. New York: Columbia Univer-
sity Press, 2014. 312pp., £17.50, ISBN 9780231148917
In this ambitious work, Zheng Wang sets out to explore
how history and collective memories inform the for-
mation of national identity and foreign policy making
in China. In his attempt to make sense of some other-
wise puzzling instances of Chinese domestic and
foreign behaviour, Wang employs historical memory as
the main explanatory variable since it ‘is the key to
understanding Chinese politics and foreign relations’ (p.
7). Focusing on how the ruling Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) has formulated ‘national humiliations’
from China’s colonial past as ‘chosen trauma’ in the past
two decades, Wang persuasively argues that historical
consciousness plays an essential role in China’s public
rhetoric and historical memory, and that it has been
effectively used by the CCP to sustain its legitimacy
and to generate foreign policies.
Through a careful analysis of school textbooks and
official statements, Wang cogently points out that the
CCP has created a ‘Chosenness-Myth-Trauma’ (CMT)
to dominate China’s contemporary mainstream histori-
cal memory, giving rise to a patriotic young generation
equipped with an anti-foreign historical consciousness.
The CCP refers to the period from the outbreak of the
First Opium War in 1840 to the end of the Second
World War in 1945 as the ‘century of humiliation’ to
emphasise the irreplaceable role it has played in termi-
nating the history of national humiliation and that it
will play in reviving the historical glory and reaching
‘the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation’ (p. 237).
In concluding the book, Wang calls for ‘liberation from
the powerful complex of historical myths and trauma’
because China’s over-reliance on historical memory of
national humiliation promotes a sense of insecurity and
paranoia and may be ‘easily used by nationalists as a
tool for mobilization’ against democracy (p. 241).
Readers from a Western cultural background may
wonder whether history really plays such a predominant
role in China’s collective identity construction and its
bureaucratic procedure. But we should not forget that
history and its interpretation has always been a vital tool
of the state to consolidate power and shape national
identity. In fact, the compilation of official histories in
China was consistently monopolised by the government
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
313
for over a thousand years until the end of the imperial
period. Benefiting from research in primary sources,
Never Forget National Humiliation introduces new
materials to the English-speaking academic debate. Such
a fluently written and meticulously detailed scholarly
work will definitely appeal to a broad readership.
Hang Lin
(University of Hamburg)
The Americas
America’s Deadliest Export – Democracy: The
Truth about US Foreign Policy and Everything
Else by William Blum. London: Zed Books, 2013.
352pp., £12.99, ISBN 978 1 78032 445 6
For almost seventy years now the US has acted as the
first supporter of the spread of democracy, with Ameri-
can armed forces at the forefront of this effort. William
Blum’s forthright book successfully portrays a non-
mainstream image of the US after the Second World
War. His blunt analysis of raw data gives us a somewhat
inconvenient perspective of Western international
affairs. Nonetheless, the controversial nature of this
book makes it a valuable resource worthy to be read.
The volume is divided into 26 well-structured chap-
ters. However, it is a shame that little has been done to
group the chapters by topic areas or time period. Blum
approaches virtually every major topic of US foreign
policy after the Second World War, from communism
and the early Cold War to the Global War on Terror, to
area studies on Latin America, Libya, Yugoslavia and,
more recently, Afghanistan and Iraq. Similar interest is
given to key personalities in the US administration,
from George Bush and Condoleezza Rice to Barack
Obama. It is worth noting that in spite of the great
time span covered, the book fails to discuss the role of
key actors from the Cold War years. In this regard, the
book would have certainly benefited from the author’s
experience and expertise from his early days in the
State Department. Finally, the lack of a general conclu-
sion is regrettable as it could have provided the reader
with a rounder perspective of the findings and would
have given the book an overall symmetry.
The quality of the individual chapters is not to be
questioned, their lines of reasoning being clear and easy
to understand. However, a great sense of anti-
Americanism can be felt in the debates over the most
314
sensitive issues. Overall, the controversial nature of the
volume represents a good starting point for trained
readers as well as for newcomers in making a critical
analysis of what US foreign policy became after the
Second World War.
Teodora-Maria Daghie
(University of Bucharest)
America’s War on Terror: The State of the 9/11
Exception from Bush to Obama by Jason Ralph.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 177pp.,
£50.00, ISBN 978 0 19 965235 8
To what extent did the state of exception established in
the immediate aftermath of 9/11 continue under the
Presidency of Barack Obama? And, more crucially, to
what extent does such exception represent the inevi-
table by-product of liberal internationalism? These are
the two main questions that Jason Ralph’s book aims
to answer. America’s War on Terror identifies the contours
of the Schmittian critique of the War on Terror:
America turned illiberal enemies into foes, excluding
them from the ‘normative regimes that otherwise
restrained warfare’ (p. 6). The establishment of a post-
9/11 exception was always ‘embedded in the logic of
liberal internationalism’ (p. 8). The author sets out to
contest this interpretation while identifying elements of
continuity and change in the policies of the Bush and
Obama administrations.
The book is divided into four main sections looking
at the use of force, the prosecution of terrorist suspects,
the detention of terrorist suspects and the interrogation
of terrorist suspects in the aftermath of 9/11. The
analysis of the use of force is particularly compelling. As
Ralph correctly points out, the Obama administration
has largely relied on the Authorization for Use of
Military Force as the source of power in the fight
against al-Qa’eda – a change from Bush’s reliance on
the Constitution’s Commander-in-Chief clause (p. 24).
And yet, on this as on other issues, the Obama admin-
istration has relied on theoretical developments initi-
ated under its predecessor, such as the redefinition of
‘imminence’ and pre-emption (p. 33) and the pursuit of
a ‘global’ war. In the analysis, however, the key point is
the effort of the Obama administration to include
liberal voices – pushing for American ‘exceptionalism,’
rather than exception – that were largely excluded
during the Bush era. If the change of rhetoric has been
OTHER AREAS
successful, the change in policies has proven more
problematic. On some issues the Obama administration
has proven unwilling to abandon the post-9/11 frame-
work; on others the effort was stymied by political
necessity and by the stubbornness of Congress (p. 101).
Ralph does an exceptional job in analysing the legal,
theoretical and political contours of the War on Terror
and of the changes and continuities from Bush to
Obama. Although the apparent conflation of ‘excep-
tion’ and ‘exceptionalism’ initially seems puzzling, the
discussion convincingly develops the two elements as
the two struggling souls of America’s War on Terror.
Luca Trenta
(University of Swansea)
Other Areas
Turkey Facing East: Islam, Modernity and
Foreign Policy by Ayla Göl. Manchester: Manches-
ter University Press, 2013. 210pp., £70.00, ISBN
9780719090752
In Turkey Facing East, Ayla Göl explores the relationship
between Islam, modernity and foreign policy in Turkey
through a multicausal, multidisciplinary perspective that
includes historical, sociological and political analysis. In
the first three chapters, Göl proposes an alternative theo-
retical framework to study Turkish foreign policy with
respect to: (1) different dimensions of foreign policy (i.e.
history, modernity, leadership, domestic motives and
identity construction); (2) the late Ottoman Empire’s
transition to modernity; and (3) the emergence of
Turkish nationalism. She claims that there is a link
between the Ottoman Empire’s incorporation into the
capitalist system, its transformation to a modern nation
state with a political identity compatible with moder-
nity, and Turkish foreign policy during the time of tran-
sition from the Empire to the Republic.
Göl then applies this framework to illustrate that
Turkish foreign policy towards the South Caucasus
between 1918 and 1921 played a significant role in
modern state-building as the Turkish nationalists
abandoned expansionist imperial policies after the deter-
mination of the ‘national’ border between the Ottoman
and Russian empires. She also illustrates that Turkey’s
acceptance of the Sovietisation of Azerbaijan, the deter-
mination of Turkish-Armenian borders with the
cooperation of the Bolsheviks, the emergence of Mustafa
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
BOOK REVIEWS
Kemal rather than Enver Pasha or Mustafa Suphi as the
leader of the nationalist movement in Anatolia, and
eventually international recognition of Turkey as an
independent state are elements of an interlinked foreign-
domestic policy of a transition period.
This is an impressive book that represents a genu-
inely innovative contribution to the field. Göl elabo-
rates on a lesser-examined period of Turkish-Russian
relations by offering a new theoretical perspective to
studying foreign policy. Despite the complexity of the
theoretical framework, the book is immensely readable.
Thus it should appeal to a wide range of readers who
are interested in foreign policy analysis,Turkish-Russian
relations and Turkish studies. It would also serve as
teaching material in graduate or undergraduate courses
on the history of Turkish foreign policy.
Şakir Dinçşahin
(Yeditepe University, Istanbul)
Democracy in Iran by Ramin Jahanbegloo.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 109pp., £45.00,
ISBN 978 1 137 33016 1
Despite the widespread effects of the Arab Spring in
the region, Iran has so far remained untouched. Along-
side other reasons, the most significant is probably the
belief in non-violence of Iranian people and civil
society. In the twentieth century, Iran remained stuck in
the politics of violence. Ramin Jahanbegloo believes
that the people of Iran, unlike its state, are deeply
inimical to violence. Therefore, since non-violence
plays a significant role in the struggle for democracy in
Iran, Jahanbegloo makes it the central theme for
dealing with democracy and the state in Iran.
Iran has several legacies of non-violent struggle for
democracy. The years 1906, 1951 and 1979 are clear
examples of this.To achieve democracy, non-violence is
a must, the author suggests, because the state is deeply
violent. The moment people become violent their
struggle will be oppressed and ultimately it will see its
end. Having seen the brutality of the violence carried
out by authoritative regimes, people are no longer
interested in achieving peace through violence. In the
words of the author: ‘Living through two revolutions,
one coup, one armed occupation and sporadic guerrilla
warfare in the country, several generations of Iranians
have learned far more than other Middle Easterners
about the destructiveness and horrors of violence’
© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2015, 13(2)
315
(p. 83). In addition, having already failed in three revo-
lutions, the people are not ready for another one.
Rather, they are in favour of peaceful evolution.
Jahanbegloo deals very well with the history of
‘authoritarian violence’ of the state and the ‘democratic
non-violence’ of the people both during the Pahlavi
regime as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran. During
the twentieth century, Iran came closer to Western
ideas and values, with both Iranian intellectuals and the
Pahlavi state playing a major role in this. However, and
paradoxically, the people were not free to taste them
and therefore a vacuum emerged for civil society,
which started demanding freedom and rights. Thus
there has been much discussion about how the events
of 1906, 1951 and 1979 emerged and how they failed.
In his own analysis the author is more inclined towards
the secularists and their role in the struggle throughout.
Another aspect is how the Islamic Republic of Iran
has floated two sovereignties: the divine and the popular.
The author finds this both conflicting and incompatible,
and regards it to be the major hurdle for the evolution of
democracy in Iran. He brilliantly discusses this bone of
contention in Chapter 5 of the book.
All in all, this book is worth reading in order to
understand the struggle for democracy in Iran and the
relationship between the state and the people through-
out the twentieth century.
Syed Kashif
(Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)
Evaluating Social Movement Impacts: Compara-
tive Lessons from the Labor Movement in Turkey
by Brian Mello. London: Bloomsbury, 2013. 192pp.,
£65.00, ISBN 9781441184283
Brian Mello has produced a comprehensive history of
the Turkish labour movement filling an important gap in
the social movement literature in general, and the
Turkish labour movement in particular. The author’s
concept of ‘alternative collective subjectivity’ acquires a
central role in his analysis as it contributes to the shaping
of state–labour relations. The comparative historical
analysis the author employs allows him to cross-reference
his cases and juxtapose his findings. Thus, in the second
chapter, Mello compares the British and the American
labour movements and concludes that, although they
both faced extensive repressive state measures, the British
formed an alternative collective subjectivity that allowed
316
them to play a significant role in the politics of the
country, while the inability to form in the American case
led its labour movement to business unionism.
The ensuing three chapters deal with the main case
of Turkey. Mello demonstrates successfully the chal-
lenges and difficulties the labour movement in Turkey
has had to face due to the Kemalist populist and cor-
poratist politics, which have aimed to establish a
classless society. However, following the relative liber-
alisation of the 27 May 1960 military coup (although
not strictly because of it), radical labour activism
managed to emerge and form an alternative collective
subjectivity, whose legacy becomes evident after the
extremely repressive measures imposed by the military
regime in 1980. Thus, the author challenges the domi-
nant thesis that the Turkish labour movement has
‘failed’, and rightly questions the validity of the word.
He also argues that a movement should be seen in
perspective – something that in the Turkish case is
evident in other aspects of contemporary Turkish poli-
tics, such as Kurdish activism in the 1980s and 1990s.
Testing his findings on the post-war Japanese experi-
ence in the final chapter strengthens his argument.
There, the adoption of radical labour activism, as in the
OTHER AREAS
Turkish case, played an important and enduring role in
shaping the development of state–society relations.
The mistakes in Turkish party names, as in the case
of Demokrat Partisi, instead of Demokrat Parti, or Türk
İşçi Partisi, instead of Türkiye İşçi Partisi, and confusing
the gender of Mihri Belli as female (p. 98), do not
change the content of the book, which is of a high
standard, well-researched and provides alternative
perspectives, supported by a carefully structured com-
parative analysis. The book is highly readable and
insightful – indeed, a must-read – and highly recom-
mended for scholars, graduates and those interested in
social and labour movements, as well as those interested
in Turkish political history.
Nikos Christofis
(Leiden University)
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© 2015 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2015 Political Studies Association
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