This is a major new comparison of the American and European political systems. By deploying a powerful new model to analyze the two systems it draws some challenging conclusions about their increasing similarity. Professor Fabbrini argues that the process of regional integration in Europe over the last 60 years, has significantly reduced the historical differences between the democracies on either side of the Atlantic. The EU and the US are now similar because they represent two different species of the same political genus: the compound democracy. The defining feature of compound democracy is the union of states and their citizens. Through such union, the states agree to pool their sovereignty within a larger integrated supra-state or supranational framework. They do so because these... Less

The Only Coin-Pricing Catalog with Actual-Size Full-Color Photographs Known as the - Bible of the industry - and voted the most useful reference since 1946, this annual guide book of U.S. coins provides beginning and seasoned collectors valuable coin price trends and detailed information about virtually all U.S. coins. FEATURES INCLUDE: Latest values for all United States Coins . Detailed actual-size photographs of coins for easy identification. Up to seven price columns . History of United States Coinage. American Numismatic Association Grading Standards. Sections on mint errors, colonials, proof and mint sets, commemoratives, territorials, types coins, Civil War Issues, and United States Bullion Coins.

The relationship between the members states of the European Union and the United States have been strained in recent years as a result of shifts in U.S. global strategy, as well as important changes in the international economic, political, and security environment. The tensions in US-EU relations, the growing challenges to both US and EU interests represented by a resurgent Russian Federation as well as the Islamic world, and dramatic shifts in the economic and political capabilities of countries from East Asia to Latin America all contribute to a much more complex international environment than that envisaged in the wake of the end of the Cold War. The current volume will examine the implications of these changes for the future of international politics. Preface Contributors ... Less

In the United States today many people are as likely to identify themselves by their ethnicity or region as by their nationality. In this country with its diversity and inequalities, can there be a shared public culture? Is there an unbridgeable gap between cultural variety and civic unity, or can public forms of expression provide an opportunity for Americans to come together as a people?In Public Culture: Diversity, Democracy, and Community in the United States, an interdisciplinary group of scholars addresses these questions while considering the state of American public culture over the past one hundred years. From medicine shows to the Internet, from the Los Angeles Plaza to the Las Vegas Strip, from the commemoration of the Oklahoma City bombing to television programming after... Less

In 1999, a declaration formalizing “the European process” was signed at and informally named for Europe’s oldest university: Bologna. “The Bologna Process” has transformed higher education in Europe.This book is essential reading for anyone concerned about the ability of America’s higher education system to position the country for competitiveness in a global economy, about its failure to broaden access and participation, or to respond to calls for accountability, and specifically about whether it is ready to address the redoubtable challenge that Bologna Process represents on all these issues. In this book Paul Gaston assesses the Process’ accomplishments, weighing its strengths and weaknesses, and evaluates which features pose a threat, which we can learn from, and which may be... Less

Giancarlo Soler Torrijos is the Deputy Ambassador of Panama to the United Nations, New York. He holds his Bachelor's Degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Oxford University, England. Before his appointment as a diplomat, he taught at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico. His writings have received several awards and prizes, among them from the Buenos Aires daily La Nacion and from the State of Quintana Roo in Mexico. His most recent publication is A la Sombra de Estados Unidos, in which some of the ideas laid out in this book were first developed in essay form. Previously, he published a book on the U.S. intervention of Panama.

The Official Red Book, now in its 64th year, is famous nationwide as the premiere resource for U.S. coin collectors. This best-selling 'one-volume library' helps you make smart buying decisions as you build your collection. Millions of readers rely on it for full-color photographs, detailed technical data, and up-to-date mintages. The Red Book covers the history of colonial and early American coins; official federal issues from half cents through silver dollars and gold coins; classic and modern commemorativ

Asking why many American intellectuals have had such difficulty accepting wholeheartedly the cultural dimensions of democracy, Robert Dawidoff examines their alienation and ambivalence, a tradition of detachment he identifies as "Tocquevillian." In the work of three towering American literary figures - Henry Adams, Henry James, and George Santayana -- Dawidoff explores fully this distancing and uneasy response to democratic culture.Linked together by common Harvard, Cambridge, and New England connections, and by an upper-class, Brahmin background, each of these three writers, Dawidoff argues, was at once self-critical and contemptuous of cultural democracy -- especially its indifference to them and what they represented. But their claims to detached observation of democratic culture... Less

Theatrical scene design is one of the most beautiful, varied, and lively art forms. Yet there are relatively few books on the subject, and almost none for a general audience that combine expansive scholarship with lavish design. Making the Scene offers an unprecedented survey of the evolving context, theory, and practice of scene design from ancient Greek times to the present, coauthored by the world's best-known authority on the subject and enhanced by three hundred full-color illustrations. Individual chapters of the book focus on Greece, Rome, Medieval Europe (including liturgical drama, street pageants, festival outdoor drama, Spanish religious drama, and royal entries), the Italian Renaissance, eighteenth- century Europe, Classicism to Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism, Modernism,... Less

With the exception of oceans, boundaries are artificial, man-made divisions of geography that many times make little sense and sometimes no sense at all. For example, why does the northern boundary of Minnesota protrude into Canada? Why does West Virginia have two panhandles? Why do Pennsylvania and Delaware have a common boundary that is a circle segment? Why do the boundaries of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah consist entirely of lines of latitude and longitude? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in this book, which explains why and how state boundaries are placed where they are. It begins with an introduction that provides general information about boundary placement, colonial boundaries, formation of territories, surveying and Supreme Court rulings. The 50... Less

In Democracy in America, de Tocqueville observed that there is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one. Two hundred years of American history have certainly born out the truth of this remark. Whether a controversy is political, economic, or social, whether it focuses on child labor, prayer in public schools, war powers, busing, abortion, business monopolies, or capital punishment, eventually the battle is taken to court. And the ultimate venue for these vital struggles is the Supreme Court. Indeed, the Supreme Court is a prism through which the entire life of our nation is magnified and illuminated, and through which we have defined ourselves as a people. Now, in The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United... Less

Setting aside the pastiche of bullfighters and flamenco dancers that has dominated the U.S. image of Spain for more than a century, this innovative volume uncovers the roots of Spanish studies to explain why the diversity, vitality, and complexity of Spanish history and culture have been reduced in U.S. accounts to the equivalent of a tourist brochure. Spurred by the complex colonial relations between the United States and Spain, the new field of Spanish studies offered a way for the young country to reflect a positive image of itself as a democracy, in contrast with perceived Spanish intolerance and closure. "Spain in America" investigates the political and historical forces behind this duality, surveying the work of the major nineteenth- century U.S. Hispanists in the fields of history,... Less

Books. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote this classic in French after traveling across America. It is divided into two sections: the first, on government; the second, on the American character. It is considered one of the most perceptive and enduring descriptions of A

Is American democracy being derailed by the United States Senate filibuster? Is the filibuster an important right that improves the political process or an increasingly partisan tool that delays legislation and thwarts the will of the majority? Are century-old procedures in the Senate hampering the institution from fulfilling its role on the eve of the 21st century? The filibuster has achieved almost mythic proportions in the history of American politics, but it has escaped a careful, critical assessment for more than 50 years. In this book, Sarah Binder and Steven Smith provide such an assessment as they address the problems and conventional wisdom associated with the Senate's long-standing tradition of extended debate. The authors examine the evolution of the rules governing Senate... Less

Russia holds the world's largest natural gas reserves, the second largest coal and uranium reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. Europe is dependent on Russia for 25 percent of its oil and gas. Russia is also positioning itself to play a similar role with respect to China. The key to this strategy is a network of new oil and natural gas pipelines that Russia is in the process of constructing, which will by-pass the problematic Ukraine, Georgia, Poland and the Baltic States in the West, and lock-in the enormous potential of China in the East. Further, as the Western economies including the USA begin themselves to recover, their growing energy dependence will come back into the forefront, and therefore the need to ensure that Russia does not fail in its opening up of new energy... Less

Immigration is continuously and rapidly changing the face of Western countries. While newcomers are harbingers of change, host nations also participate in how new populations are incorporated into their social and political fabric. Bringing together a transcontinental group of anthropologists, this book provides an in-depth look at the current processes of immigration, political behavior, and citizenship in both the United States and Europe. Essays draw on issues of race, national identity, religion, and more, while addressing questions, including: How should citizenship be defined? In what ways do immigrants use the political process to achieve group aims? And, how do adults and youth learn to become active participants in the public sphere? Among numerous case studies, examples... Less

Immigration is continuously and rapidly changing the face of Western countries. While newcomers are harbingers of change, host nations also participate in how new populations are incorporated into their social and political fabric. Bringing together a transcontinental group of anthropologists, this book provides an in-depth look at the current processes of immigration, political behavior, and citizenship in both the United States and Europe. Essays draw on issues of race, national identity, religion, and more, while addressing questions, including: How should citizenship be defined? In what ways do immigrants use the political process to achieve group aims? And, how do adults and youth learn to become active participants in the public sphere? Among numerous case studies, examples... Less

Books. Alexis de Tocqueville wrote this classic in French after traveling across America. It is divided into two sections: the first, on government; the second, on the American character. It is considered one of the most perceptive and enduring descriptions of A

"With the publication of this volume, knowledge and understanding of the practices of delivering micro-credit reach a new level of consolidation, and the stage is set for important further steps."—from the Foreword by Richard P. Taub, University of ChicagoMicrofinan ce was pioneered in the developing world as the lending of small amounts of money to entrepreneurs who lacked the kinds of credentials and collateral demanded by banks. Similar practices spread from the developing to the developed world, reversing the usual direction of innovation, and today several hundred microfinance institutions are operating in the United States. Replicating Microfinace in the United States reviews experiences in both developing and industrialized countries and extends the applications of microlending... Less

The United States is truly a nation of immigrants. While it was very sparsely populated by mostly Native Americans in 1600, today it is a nation of about 300 million people, most of whom are immigrants or descendents of immigrants. Before the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (which abolished national-origin quotas), about 40 million immigrants had come to America, most of them from Europe. Since 1965, another 40 million immigrants have arrived, primarily from Mexico and Asia. This book details the issues and events of immigration to America chronologically from 1600 to the present, beginning with the mass influx of Jamestown settlers, Pilgrim separatists, and slaves during the colonial period and concluding with a discussion of the ongoing contemporary legislative debates... Less

At the time of Ortega's return to the presidency, attorney and award-winning author Steven Hendrix was on the ground in Nicaragua working for the U.S. Agency for International Development. The New Nicaragua: Lessons in Development, Democracy, and Nation-Building for the United States is Hendrix's eyewitness account of the changes going on there.What Hendrix found in the new Nicaragua is a decidedly mixed bag: a presidential campaign marked by dirty tricks and backroom deals, yet an election held under the first neutral comprehensive observation ever in the developing world; an overt effort to appease the United States even while attempting to undermine U.S. policy in the region. Yet despite this, Hendrix saw U.S. pro-democracy, civil society efforts succeed, disproving the many skeptics... Less

FEATURING COAUTHORSHIP BY CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY Thanks to the partnership between Glencoe and Congressional Quarterly, this program provides a “behind-the-scenes ” look at Washington never before available in any government program.

Gil Merom argues that modern democracies fail in insurgency wars because they are unable to find a winning balance between expedient and moral tolerance for the costs of war. Small wars are lost at home when a critical minority shifts the balancing element from the battlefield to the marketplace of ideas. This minority, representing the educated middle class, abhors the brutality involved in effective counterinsurgency , but also refuses to sustain the level of casualties resulting from fighting in other ways.

This challenging and highly practical book draws on the findings from an international study designed to help practitioners and researchers understand the factors and processes that enable healthcare organisations in the United States and Europe to achieve - and sustain - high quality services for their users. The in-depth case-studies from seven leading hospitals give an international, evidence-based outlook that focuses on both the organisational and cultural processes of quality improvement. Implication for research and practice are considered, and a checklist of possible challenges has been drawn up to help identify any >gaps' in initiatives. Healthcare policy makers and shapers including hospital chief executives and NHS directors will find this book enlightening, as will healthcare... Less

The 'Precautionary Principle' has sparked the central controversy over European and U.S. risk regulation. The Reality of Precaution is the most comprehensive study to go beyond precaution as an abstract principle and test its reality in practice. This groundbreaking resource combines detailed case studies of a wide array of risks to health, safety, environment and security; a broad quantitative analysis; and cross-cutting chapters on politics, law, and perceptions. The authors rebut the rhetoric of conflicting European and American approaches to risk, and show that the reality has been the selective application of precaution to particular risks on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as a constructive exchange of policy ideas toward 'better regulation.' The book offers a new view of... Less