Technical fouls

Sample

Paul A. Beckett and Crawford Young

Through essays by 19 leading political analysts of Nigeria, this book offers an innovative, multidisciplinary study of the historical, social, and economic roots of both the effort and failure to create democracy in Nigeria. Two major episodes of transition to democracy (both ultimately unsuccessful) are studied in detail, as are the ingenious provisions of Nigeria's three democratic constitutions. New interpretations of the pattern of regional and ethnic interaction and conflict are developed, as is a fascinating view of the inter-relation between military rule and resurgent religious strife. The outlooks - for democracy, internal peace, and continued national existence - are assessed.

Sample

John Mukum Mbaku, Julius O. Ihonvbere

Contains a mixture of analytical views on the transition to accountable, and democratic governance structures in Africa. The text looks at the struggles of creating appropriate and viable governance structures and economic systems that maximize the participation of citizens in national development.

Sample

Alejandro Moreno

"In Political Cleavages: Issues, Parties, and the Consolidation of Democracy, Alejandro Moreno argues that the political split between authoritarian and democratic ideologies is the main determinant of party competition in less-developed, relatively new democracies. That is, political competition is drawn between those parties that propose to further democratic consolidation and those that advocate a return to authoritarian order. Moreno compares political cleavages in new democracies (including several in Latin America) with political conflict in advanced industrial democracies, demonstrating that there are similar ideological dimensions of competition that reflect the most salient issues in society."--BOOK JACKET.

Sample

Susan Leigh Foster

Corporealities vivifies the study of bodies through a consideration of bodily reality, not as natural or absolute given but as tangible and substantial category of cultural experience. The essays in this volume summon up bodies engaged in practices as diverse as pageantry, physical education, festivals and exhibitions, tourism, social and theatrical dance, and post-colonial and psychoanalytic encounters. They bring these bodies to life, quivering with all the political, gendered, social, racial, sexual, and aesthetic resonances of which bodily motion is capable.