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From her perspective as both participant and observer, Barbara Epstein examines the nonviolent direct action movement which, inspired by the civil rights movement, flourished in the United States from the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties. Disenchanted with the politics of both the mainstream and the organized left, and deeply committed to forging communities based on shared values, activists in this movement developed a fresh, philosophy and style of politics that shaped the thinking of a new generation of activists. Driven by a vision of an ecologically balanced, nonviolent, egalitarian society, they engaged in political action through affinity groups, made decisions by consensus, and practiced mass civil disobedience.
The nonviolent direct action movement galvanized originally in opposition to nuclear power, with the Clamshell Alliance in New England and then the Abalone Alliance in California leading the way. Its influence soon spread to other activist movements--for peace, non-intervention, ecological preservation, feminism, and gay and lesbian rights.
Epstein joined the San Francisco Bay Area's Livermore Action Group to protest the arms race and found herself in jail along with a thousand other activists for blocking the road in front of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. She argues that to gain a real understanding of the direct action movement it is necessary to view it from the inside. For with its aim to base society as a whole on principles of egalitarianism and nonviolence, the movement sought to turn political protest into cultural revolution.

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Weeks after President Barack Obama's remarkable victory, the nation was shocked to learn that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had been arrested at his home by the FBI. There are allegations that Blago had tried to sell Obama's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat for cash. This effort appeared to be only the latest in a cascade of corruption that prompted U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to charge the governor with actions that would make Lincoln roll over in his grave. In Pay to Play, Elizabeth Brackett, award-winning correspondent in the political realm for PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, uncovers new details as she goes behind the story of the first governor to be impeached by the Illinois legislature. All the time tracing the background of corruption in Illinois politics and its implications for state government executive branches across the country, she tells precisely how Blagojevich's personal biography and his political upbringing paved the way for his reckless fall; what the dilemma of selecting replacement senators means for other states; what secrets the federal trial of the governor is likely to produce; why Roland Burris was selected for the U.S. Senate seat for Illinois; and how a man named Obama could emerge with integrity from the swill of this same political environment.

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This work brings together the assessments and experiences of leading academics and practitioners from the international investor, lender and insurance communities. It examines the transformations in the political risk insurance market in the 1990s, resulting from changes in the broader insurance industry and from the rapid and complex expansion of foreign direct investment into emerging markets. It also analyzes some of the current supply and demand challenges in the political risk insurance marketplace in the wake of the financial crises of the late 1990s. The authors explore future directions in political risk management with regard to many of the most difficult issues: breach of contract coverage for firms with large fixed investments in sectors such as infrastructure and natural resources; securitization of political risk exposure; pricing and capacity in the political risk insurance industry; multiple pledge of shares between investors and lenders; and cooperation among private and public insurers. This book is a collection of papers stemming from a symposium on International Political Risk Management held in April 2000, under the joint auspices of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the Karl F. Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy at the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

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Kathleen Thelen explains the historical origins of important cross-national differences in four countries (Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan), and also provides a theory of institutional change over time. The latter is considered a frontier issue in institutionalist analysis, of which there are several varieties emerging from economics, political science, and sociology. Thelen's study contributes to the literature on the political economy of the developed democracies that focuses on different institutional arrangements defining distinctive models of capitalism.

"One cannot praise enough Thelen’s continuing contribution to the progress of institutional theory, especially the theory of institutional change. She masterfully weaves together a comparative tale of four countries to provide a critique of the functionalist rationalism of much of the current debate on institutions and economic systems in general." Wolfgang Streeck, The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

"Why do institutions vary across nations? How do institutions persist and change over time? Exploring vocational and skills training in major industrial nations, Kathleen Thelen casts new theoretical light on these fundamental questions. This brilliant book is a must-read, not only for students of the political economy of advanced industrial societies, but for all social scientists grappling with how to explain institutional development." Theda Skocpol, Harvard University

"This brilliant book, focusing on Germany in comparison to the UK, the US and Japan, makes three major and original contributions to the comparative political economy literature. First, Thelen provides a coherent comparative theory of why training systems differ across developed economies today based on the differences in institutional settlements a century or more earlier between business, unions and artisans. Second, and supplementing this, she develops a theory of institutional change which shows (contrary to the standard punctuated equilibria argument) how institutions embody continuities through reconfiguration even in the face of major external shocks. Third, she establishes the critical role of business in the evolution of training systems. Beyond these achievements, her analytic skill and her use of rich historical sources make the book a quite compelling read." David Soskice, Duke University

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This wide-ranging and accessible book provides a thorough overview of the key debates in gender and political theory.

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A social and demographic portrait of Latino legal immigrants to the USA, comparing and contrasting them with the broader Latino population and discussing the experiences of Latinos from Central and South America.