Breaking Away: The Case for Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities

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Author :
Publisher : Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN 13 : 1610167619
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Breaking Away: The Case for Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities by : Ryan McMaken

Download or read book Breaking Away: The Case for Secession, Radical Decentralization, and Smaller Polities written by Ryan McMaken and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2022-10-14 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breaking Away differs from countless other books on secession and decentralization in that it considers examples and benefits of secession and radical decentralization in a much broader historical, geographical, and theoretical context. This book is for anyone interested in how issues of secession and decentralization come up again and again worldwide as communities of human beings seek self-determination, freedom, and economic prosperity. McMaken also examines small states which are often examples of successful cases of secession and radical decentralization. The reader will come away with a better understanding of how political decentralization continues to be relevant, useful, and important in the modern world.

Break It Up

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Author :
Publisher : Hachette UK
ISBN 13 : 0316510599
Total Pages : 505 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Break It Up by : Richard Kreitner

Download or read book Break It Up written by Richard Kreitner and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-08-18 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From journalist and historian Richard Kreitner, a "powerful revisionist account"of the most persistent idea in American history: these supposedly United States should be broken up (Eric Foner). The novel and fiery thesis of Break It Up is simple: The United States has never lived up to its name—and never will. The disunionist impulse may have found its greatest expression in the Civil War, but as Break It Up shows, the seduction of secession wasn’t limited to the South or the nineteenth century. It was there at our founding and has never gone away. With a scholar’s command and a journalist’s curiosity, Richard Kreitner takes readers on a revolutionary journey through American history, revealing the power and persistence of disunion movements in every era and region. Each New England town after Plymouth was a secession from another; the thirteen colonies viewed their Union as a means to the end of securing independence, not an end in itself; George Washington feared separatism west of the Alleghenies; Aaron Burr schemed to set up a new empire; John Quincy Adams brought a Massachusetts town’s petition for dissolving the United States to the floor of Congress; and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison denounced the Constitution as a pro-slavery pact with the devil. From the “cold civil war” that pits partisans against one another to the modern secession movements in California and Texas, the divisions that threaten to tear America apart today have centuries-old roots in the earliest days of our Republic. Richly researched and persuasively argued, Break It Up will help readers make fresh sense of our fractured age.

Secession, State, and Liberty

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Author :
Publisher : Transaction Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1412833833
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (128 download)

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Book Synopsis Secession, State, and Liberty by : David Gordon

Download or read book Secession, State, and Liberty written by David Gordon and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political impulse to secede -- to attempt to separate from central government control -- is a conspicuous feature of the post-cold war world. It is alive and growing in Canada, Russia, China, Italy, Belgium, Britain, and even the United States Yet secession remains one of the least studied and least understood of all historical and political phenomena. The contributors to this volume have filled this gap with wide-ranging investigations -- rooted in history, political philosophy, ethics, and economic theory -- of secessionist movements in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Is secessionism extremist, a dangerous rebellion that threatens the democratic process? Gordon and his contributors think otherwise. They believe that the secessionist impulse is a vital part of the classical liberal tradition, one that emerges when national governments become too big and too ambitious. Unlike revolution, secession seeks only separation from rule, preferably through non-violent means. It is based on the moral idea, articulated by Ludwig von Mises in 1919, that "no people and no part of a people shall be held against its will in a political association that it does not want. The authors cite the famed 1861 attempt to create a confederacy of Southern states as legal, right, and a justifiable response to Northern political imperialism. They note that this was not the first American secession attempt -- the New England states tried to form their own confederacy during the War of 1812. This evidence, they argue, begs a reinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution along secessionist lines. Further they believe that the threat of secession should be revived as a bulwark against government encroachmenton individual liberty and private property rights, a guarantor of international free trade, and a protection against attempts to curb the freedom of association. These straightforward, pellucid arguments include essays by Donald Livingston, Murray N. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Thomas DiLorenzo, and Bruce Benson, among others. If overgrown nations continue to decompose, as they have for the last decade, these authors believe it is essential that secession be taken seriously, and fully understood. Secession, State, and Liberty makes a vital contribution toward that end. This stimulating, thought-provoking collection is necessary reading for intellectual historians and political scientists.

American Secession

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Author :
Publisher : Encounter Books
ISBN 13 : 1641770813
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (417 download)

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Book Synopsis American Secession by : F.H. Buckley

Download or read book American Secession written by F.H. Buckley and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans have never been more divided, and we’re ripe for a breakup. The bitter partisan animosities, the legislative gridlock, the growing acceptance of violence in the name of political virtue—it all invites us to think that we’d be happier were we two different countries. In all the ways that matter, save for the naked force of law, we are already two nations. There’s another reason why secession beckons, says F.H. Buckley: we’re too big. In population and area, the United States is one of the biggest countries in the world, and American Secession provides data showing that smaller countries are happier and less corrupt. They’re less inclined to throw their weight around militarily, and they’re freer too. There are advantages to bigness, certainly, but the costs exceed the benefits. On many counts, bigness is badness. Across the world, large countries are staring down secession movements. Many have already split apart. Do we imagine that we, almost alone in the world, are immune? We had a civil war to prevent a secession, and we’re tempted to see that terrible precedent as proof against another effort. This book explodes that comforting belief and shows just how easy it would be for a state to exit the Union if that’s what its voters wanted. But if that isn’t what we really want, Buckley proposes another option, a kind of Secession Lite, that could heal our divisions while allowing us to keep our identity as Americans.

Commie Cowboys

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Author :
Publisher : Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Commie Cowboys by : Ryan W. McMaken

Download or read book Commie Cowboys written by Ryan W. McMaken and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Western genre has long been associated with right-wing and libertarian politics, and is said to promote individualism and free-market economics. In a new look at the Western, however, Ryan McMaken shows that the Western is in fact often anti-capitalist, and in many ways, the genre attacks the dominant ideology of nineteenth-century America: classical liberalism. The classical Westerns of the mid-twentieth century often feature wealthy capitalist villains who oppress the cowardly and defenseless shopkeepers and farmers of the frontier. The gunfighter, a representative of the law and order provided by the nation-state, intervenes to provide safety and justice. In addition to attacks on capitalism, the Western attacks other prized values of the bourgeois middle classes including Christianity, education and urbanization. McMaken examines these themes as used in the films of John Ford, Anthony Mann, and Howard Hawks. These pioneers of the classical Westerns are then contrasted with later innovators such as Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood. Also included are discussions of the role of the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series, Victorian literature, and the nature of crime on the historical frontier. With a foreword by Paul A. Cantor, author of GILLIGAN UNBOUND and THE INVISIBLE HAND IN POPULAR CULTURE.

The Skyscraper Curse

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Publisher : Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN 13 : 1610166884
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis The Skyscraper Curse by : Mark Thornton

Download or read book The Skyscraper Curse written by Mark Thornton and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2018-08-01 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Skyscraper Curse is Dr. Mark Thornton's definitive work on booms and busts, and it explains why only Austrian economists really understand them. It makes business cycle theory accessible to a whole new 21st-century audience. And they need it, especially those under 40. Many of the brilliant quants working on Wall Street and at the Fed barely remember the Crash of 2008, much less understand it. But Mark Thornton does, and his book is a warning about overheated equity markets, over-inflated housing prices, and clueless central bankers. Given the shaky stock markets lately, 2018 may be the year the Fed’s latest bubble bursts. And when it does, it will be even more painful than 10 years ago. In fact, US household and business debt is now one trillion dollars higher than 2008. Mark is well known as an expert on bubbles and Fed malfeasance. His work appears in outlets like Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, The Economist, Barron’s, and Investor’s Business Daily. His now-infamous Skyscraper Index theory draws the connection between loose monetary policy, artificially low interest rates, and vanity construction projects. Put the three together and it doesn’t turn out well. And let’s not forget that Dr. Thornton was among only a handful of economists to warn about the dangerous housing bubble in 2004, and again in 2006. Cabbies and waiters bought up condos with no money down in places like Las Vegas. Prices rose 25 percent or more every year in some coastal markets. Even people with terrible credit financed houses at five or seven times their annual income. All of it was made possible by the Fed and its mania for low interest rates. So when the experts said “Nobody could have seen this coming,” the Mises Institute had Mark’s articles and papers ready to go. The housing crash, and the meltdown in equity markets less than a year later, were thoroughly explained by Austrian business cycle theory. And Mark was the capable face of the Mises Institute during it all. Without a lay-friendly book like The Skyscraper Curse, millions more Americans will be duped by the next crash. Dr. Thornton’s book tells the story that needs to be told. It will be among the only alternative explanations available when the next crisis comes.

Texit

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781948035026
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Texit by : Daniel Miller

Download or read book Texit written by Daniel Miller and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the motivations, process, and practicality of a modern-day secession of Texas from the United States, examining the historical and cultural foundations of a secession and detailing how a possible Republic of Texas may function.

Why American History Is Not What They Say

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Publisher : Ludwig von Mises Institute
ISBN 13 : 1610163044
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis Why American History Is Not What They Say by : Jeff Riggenbach

Download or read book Why American History Is Not What They Say written by Jeff Riggenbach and published by Ludwig von Mises Institute. This book was released on 2009 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Americans have been warring with each other for more than a century over the contents of the American history textbooks used in the nation's high schools and colleges"--Page 4 of cover.

It Didn't Have to Be This Way

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Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1684516773
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (845 download)

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Book Synopsis It Didn't Have to Be This Way by : Harry Veryser

Download or read book It Didn't Have to Be This Way written by Harry Veryser and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-12-12 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Excellent . . . I highly recommend this book." —RON PAUL Why is the boom-and-bust cycle so persistent? Why did economists fail to predict the economic meltdown that began in 2007—or to pull us out of the crisis more quickly? And how can we prevent future calamities? Mainstream economics has no adequate answers for these pressing questions. To understand how we got here, and how we can ensure prosperity, we must turn to an alternative to the dominant approach: the Austrian School of economics. Unfortunately, few people have even a vague understanding of the Austrian School, despite the prominence of leading figures such as Nobel Prize winner F. A. Hayek, author of The Road to Serfdom. Harry C. Veryser corrects that problem in this powerful and eye-opening book. In presenting the Austrian School’s perspective, he reveals why the boom-and-bust cycle is unnatural and unnecessary. Veryser tells the fascinating (but frightening) story of how our modern economic condition developed. The most recent recession, far from being an isolated incident, was part of a larger cycle that has been the scourge of the West for a century—a cycle rooted in government manipulation of markets and currency. The lesson is clear: the devastation of the recent economic crisis—and of stagflation in the 1970s, and of the Great Depression in the 1930s—could have been avoided. It didn’t have to be this way. Too long unappreciated, the Austrian School of economics reveals the crucial conditions for a successful economy and points the way to a free, prosperous, and humane society.

The Blueprint For Liberty

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 106 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (149 download)

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Book Synopsis The Blueprint For Liberty by : Elliot Axelman

Download or read book The Blueprint For Liberty written by Elliot Axelman and published by . This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I am sorry to inform you that the country that you once knew and loved is irredeemably broken. This means that it is so ruined that it could not ever be fixed. The US is in terrible condition in many ways and on multiple levels. Part one of the book will delve into each way the US is broken. Part two will explain the methods that have consistently failed to 'fix' the united states. Part three will discuss the only solution that could allow freedom to live on beyond this generation.

Free Private Cities

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Author :
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781724391384
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (913 download)

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Book Synopsis Free Private Cities by : Titus Gebel

Download or read book Free Private Cities written by Titus Gebel and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-08-07 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imagine a system in which a private company offers you protection of life, liberty and property as a "government service provider". This service includes internal and external security, a legal and regulatory framework and independent dispute resolution. You pay a contractually fixed fee for these services per year. The government service provider, as the operator of the community, cannot unilaterally change this "citizens' contract" with you later on. As a "contract citizen", you have a legal claim to compliance and a claim for damages in the event the provider does not perform. You take care of everything else by yourself, but you can also do whatever you want, limited only by the rights of others and some limited rules of living together. And you only take part if and as long as the offer appeals to you. Disputes between you and the government service provider are heard in independent arbitration courts, as is customary in international commercial law. If the operator ignores the arbitral awards or abuses his power in another way, his customers leave and he goes bankrupt. He therefore has an economic risk and therefore an incentive to treat his customers well and in accordance with the contract. This concept is called a Free Private City.The first part of this book deals with fundamental questions that every social order has to face. The concept of Free Private Cities described in the second part is derived from this; historical and current models are examined. The third part deals with concrete questions of implementation of Free Private Cities. Finally, the fourth part provides an outlook on future developments.

Community, Scale, and Regional Governance

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198766971
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis Community, Scale, and Regional Governance by : Liesbet Hooghe

Download or read book Community, Scale, and Regional Governance written by Liesbet Hooghe and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second of five ambitious volumes theorizing the structure of governance above and below the central state. This book is written for those interested in the character, causes, and consequences of governance within the state. The book argues that jurisdictional design is shaped by the functional pressures that arise from the logic of scale in providing public goods and by the preferences that people have regarding self-government. The first has to do with the character of the public goods provided by government: their scale economies, externalities, and informational asymmetries. The second has to do with how people conceive and construct the groups to which they feel themselves belonging. In this book, the authors demonstrate that scale and community are principles that can help explain some basic features of governance, including the growth of multiple tiers over the past six decades, how jurisdictions are designed, why governance within the state has become differentiated, and the extent to which regions exert authority. The authors propose a postfunctionalist theory which rejects the notion that form follows function, and argue that whilst functional pressures are enduring, one must engage human passions regarding self-rule to explain variation in the structures of rule over time and around the world. Transformations in Governance is a major new academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states up to supranational institutions, down to subnational governments, and side-ways to public-private networks. It brings together work that significantly advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars. The series targets mainly single-authored or co-authored work, but it is pluralistic in terms of disciplinary specialization, research design, method, and geographical scope. Case studies as well as comparative studies, historical as well as contemporary studies, and studies with a national, regional, or international focus are all central to its aims. Authors use qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling, or mixed methods. A trade mark of the books is that they combine scholarly rigour with readable prose and an attractive production style. The series is edited by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the VU Amsterdam, and Walter Mattli of the University of Oxford.

The Military and Democracy in Indonesia

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Author :
Publisher : Rand Corporation
ISBN 13 : 0833034022
Total Pages : 185 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (33 download)

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Book Synopsis The Military and Democracy in Indonesia by : Angel Rabasa

Download or read book The Military and Democracy in Indonesia written by Angel Rabasa and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2002-12-13 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The military is one of the few institutions that cut across the divides of Indonesian society. As it continues to play a critical part in determining Indonesia's future, the military itself is undergoing profound change. The authors of this book examine the role of the military in politics and society since the fall of President Suharto in 1998. They present several strategic scenarios for Indonesia, which have important implications for U.S.-Indonesian relations, and propose goals for Indonesian military reform and elements of a U.S. engagement policy.

Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia

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Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0804773521
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia by : Vedi Hadiz

Download or read book Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia written by Vedi Hadiz and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-26 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about how the design of institutional change results in unintended consequences. Many post-authoritarian societies have adopted decentralization—effectively localizing power—as part and parcel of democratization, but also in their efforts to entrench "good governance." Vedi Hadiz shifts the attention to the accompanying tensions and contradictions that define the terms under which the localization of power actually takes place. In the process, he develops a compelling analysis that ties social and institutional change to the outcomes of social conflict in local arenas of power. Using the case of Indonesia, and comparing it with Thailand and the Philippines, Hadiz seeks to understand the seeming puzzle of how local predatory systems of power remain resilient in the face of international and domestic pressures. Forcefully persuasive and characteristically passionate, Hadiz challenges readers while arguing convincingly that local power and politics still matter greatly in our globalized world.

Measuring Regional Authority

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0191044679
Total Pages : 708 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Measuring Regional Authority by : Liesbet Hooghe

Download or read book Measuring Regional Authority written by Liesbet Hooghe and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 708 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first of five ambitious volumes theorizing the structure of governance above and below the central state. This book is written for those interested in the character, causes, and consequences of governance within the state and for social scientists who take measurement seriously. The book sets out a measure of regional authority for 81 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific from 1950 to 2010. Subnational authority is exercised by individual regions, and this measure is the first that takes individual regions as the unit of analysis. On the premise that transparency is a fundamental virtue in measurement, the authors chart a new path in laying out their theoretical, conceptual, and scoring decisions before the reader. The book also provides summaries of regional governance in 81 countries for scholars and students alike. Transformations in Governance is a major new academic book series from Oxford University Press. It is designed to accommodate the impressive growth of research in comparative politics, international relations, public policy, federalism, environmental and urban studies concerned with the dispersion of authority from central states up to supranational institutions, down to subnational governments, and side-ways to public-private networks. It brings together work that significantly advances our understanding of the organization, causes, and consequences of multilevel and complex governance. The series is selective, containing annually a small number of books of exceptionally high quality by leading and emerging scholars. The series targets mainly single-authored or co-authored work, but it is pluralistic in terms of disciplinary specialization, research design, method, and geographical scope. Case studies as well as comparative studies, historical as well as contemporary studies, and studies with a national, regional, or international focus are all central to its aims. Authors use qualitative, quantitative, formal modeling, or mixed methods. A trade mark of the books is that they combine scholarly rigour with readable prose and an attractive production style. The series is edited by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the VU Amsterdam, and Walter Mattli of the University of Oxford.

Secessionist Challenges in Aceh and Papua

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (318 download)

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Book Synopsis Secessionist Challenges in Aceh and Papua by : Rodd McGibbon

Download or read book Secessionist Challenges in Aceh and Papua written by Rodd McGibbon and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study investigates if special autonomy can resolve the secessionist challenges in Aceh and Papua. The analysis covers the background of the decision to grant special autonomy and the shifting dynamics that resulted in Jakarta ultimately backsliding on both laws. Without linking concessions to dialogue, Aceh and Papua are likely to represent a continuing source of conflict and secessionism for the Indonesian state.

The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization

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Author :
Publisher : World Bank Publications
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization by : James Manor

Download or read book The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization written by James Manor and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly all countries worldwide are now experimenting with decentralization. Their motivation are diverse. Many countries are decentralizing because they believe this can help stimulate economic growth or reduce rural poverty, goals central government interventions have failed to achieve. Some countries see it as a way to strengthen civil society and deepen democracy. Some perceive it as a way to off-load expensive responsibilities onto lower level governments. Thus, decentralization is seen as a solution to many different kinds of problems. This report examines the origins and implications decentralization from a political economy perspective, with a focus on its promise and limitations. It explores why countries have often chosen not to decentralize, even when evidence suggests that doing so would be in the interests of the government. It seeks to explain why since the early 1980s many countries have undertaken some form of decentralization. This report also evaluates the evidence to understand where decentralization has considerable promise and where it does not. It identifies conditions needed for decentralization to succeed. It identifies the ways in which decentralization can promote rural development. And it names the goals which decentralization will probably not help achieve.