Tag: Book reviews
Book Review: The British Constitution: Continuity and Change – A Festschrift for Vernon Bogdanor
Despite the efforts of the Liberal Democrats in Government, the movement for constitutional reform is at a nadir in the wake of the defeat of the AV referendum and the abandonment of democratisation of the House of Lords. As a result, awareness of the constitution has never been higher, making Matt Qvortrup’s Festschrift for Professor Vernon Bogdanor […]
Book Review: In It Together: The Inside Story of the Coalition Government
Matthew d’Ancona is the Sunday Telegraph’s chief political commentator, and a man with near unmatched access amongst the journalistic fraternity to George Osborne and David Cameron’s inner circle. As such, his detailed account of the first three years of the Coalition Government make for interesting reading, even if he declines to put the Government’s record under […]
Book Review: Human Rights and Democracy: the Precarious Triumph of Ideals
Human Rights and Democracy: the Precarious Triumph of Ideals assesses the progress of human rights in and since the 20th Century, against a backdrop of repressive regimes and mass slaughter in a rigorous yet accessible way, writes Claire Overman. Despite some confusing structuring, Todd Landman illustrates the complexities of the human rights agenda in a way that non-experts and experts […]
Book Review: Digital Government @ Work: A Social Informatics Perspective
Digital Government @ Work examines the move toward online public services, which has been focus of huge policy and financial investments over the past decade. Based on original research into major public sector projects, Ian McLoughlin, Rob Wilson and Mike Martin offer a critique of the development of digital government. Chi Onwurah MP finds the book has a great […]
Book Review: Eminent Parliamentarians: The Speaker’s Lectures
In 2011, John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons, instigated a series of public lectures in which current parliamentarians reassessed the careers and characters of earlier parliamentary giants. This book brings together those lectures, and will surely be of interest to political historians and Westminster researchers. Reviewed by Paul Wingrove. Eminent Parliamentarians: The Speaker’s Lectures. […]
Book Review: The Politics of Expertise: How NGOs Shaped Modern Britain
The Politics of Expertise offers a challenging new interpretation of politics in contemporary Britain, through an examination of non-governmental organisations. Using specific case studies of the homelessness, environment, and international aid and development sectors, it seeks to demonstrate how politics and political activism has changed over the last half century. There’s a compelling argument in this […]
Book Review: Gypsies and Travellers: Empowerment and Inclusion in British Society
The eviction at Dale Farm in the UK in 2011 brought the conflicting issues relating to Gypsy and Traveller accommodation to the attention of the world’s media. However, as the furore surrounding the eviction has died down, the very pressing issues of accommodation need, inequality of access to education, healthcare and employment, and exclusion from British […]
Book Review: Local Democracy, Civic Engagement and Community: From New Labour to the Big Society
This accessible book includes an analysis of local democracy, civic engagement and participation across a range of policy areas and in the context of debates around accountability, legitimacy, sustainability, localism and the ‘big society’. Drawing on a wide range of examples, Hugh Atkinson argues that local democracy is a vibrant terrain of innovation, civic engagement and participation, […]
Book Review: The Limits of Electoral Reform
This book is about how and why electoral reforms disappoint: when we consider campaign finance, direct democracy, or legislative term limits, electoral reforms have limited, and in many cases, no effects. Despite reform advocates’ claims, and contrary to the ‘institutions matter’ literature, findings from Shaun Bowler and Todd Donovan suggest there are hard limits to effects of […]
Book Review: On Voter Competence
A half century of research shows that most citizens are shockingly uninformed about public affairs, liberal-conservative ideologies, and the issues of the day. This has led most scholars to condemn typical voters and to conclude that policy voting lies beyond their reach. On Voter Competence breaks sharply from this view, with author Paul Goren providing analysis of opinion data from […]
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