Dr. Gudrun Wacker, Senior Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, argues that China does not see the EU as an influential geostrategic competitor. Nevertheless, the Chinese political elite considers the EU as a successful example of regional integration which has fostered peace and stability.

In this research report IDEAS explores the factors which helped ZANU-PF as a former liberation movement retain power and lead to a one-party dominant state. It also explores the extent to which ZANU-PF is adapting to democratic politics and multiparty elections. Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF offers important parallels and insights into the challenges which confront former Southern African liberation movements as they move to become parties of government. These shared aspects include the importance of personality, ethnic and clan politics which helped to shape the liberation movement during the struggle for independence. There is also the important legacy of emphasis on solidarity and lack of internal discussion and debate. Furthermore, the role of 'armed struggle' and the associated use of violence have left lasting influences. These formative attitudes and experiences forged political cultures which have continued to play out in the domestic political arena post-independence. ZANU-PF is an extreme case study of the limits of how susceptible and receptive liberation leadership may be to internal dissent and debate as they address the considerable difficulties of nation-state construction after formal independence. By late 1990s ZANU-PF was facing a profound challenge to the legitimacy of its victory...

Jan-Werner Müller presents a major account of political thought in twentieth century Europe. Müller argues that the Second World War was pivotal in shaping the democratic values so familiar in the European community. Although the author carefully considers the most familiar thinkers alongside those now forgotten, Bill Kissane feels that the book still tells only half the story.

In 2005, after Congress failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, many American cities stepped up their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, by 2012, these efforts had fallen off, only two years after their peak. In new research, Rachel Krause writes that many cities decided to abandon their climate protection commitments because of the influence of mainstream political conservatism, and that this effect was more likely for cities which had achieved fewer environmental milestones.

Governing America examines how the interpretations of American political history changed over time and looks at a broad range of issues from the rise of the welfare state to modern conservatism. The book takes the wider view that political historians have more to offer than mere retrospective

"Dispossession: The Performative in the Political." Judith Butler and Athena Athanasiou. Polity. February 2013. --- In the last several years, the world has been rocked by historic protests, from Zucotti Park to Syntagma Square, and from the Arab Spring to the Greek Uprising. In Dispossession: The Performative in the Political, Judith Butler teams up Athena Athanasiou to investigate the concept of dispossession and its connections with recognition, performativity, bio-politics, protest, and relationality. Cody Campbell found the book to be an enjoyable read, and particularly liked the chemistry between the two authors, but worries that those looking for a more concrete analysis of dispossession and its relationship to performativity may walk away disappointed.

"Battle for Ground Zero: Inside the Political Struggle to Rebuild the World Trade Center." Elizabeth Greenspan. Palgrave Macmillan. August 2013. --- After 9/11 came the question of what to do with Ground Zero. This book aims to go behind the scenes of the fight to rebuild, revealing how grieving families, commercial interests, and politicking bureaucrats clashed at every step of the way, confounding progress and infuriating the public. Nathan Bullock praises Elizabeth Greenspan’s book for giving a voice to the people involved in all aspects of planning and building. Greenspan’s emphasis on public involvement in architecture and urban planning will allow for all citizens to be better involved in future redevelopment projects.

"Emerging Powers in a Comparative Perspective: The Political and Economic Rise of the BRIC Countries." Vidya Nadkarni and Norma C. Noonan. Bloomsbury. February 2013. --- The book examines the rising influence of emerging powers in global politics, with a special focus on the BRIC countries. The book aims provide a detailed analysis of political, economic, security, and foreign policy trends in the BRIC countries to address such questions as to whether they will seek to revise the international order or work within it, and how they will deal with transnational global problems. Reviewed by Carlos Carrasco Farré.

The recent crisis of the Greek economy, and the threat of its withdrawal from the Eurozone, was only averted by the rejection of a referendum on the EU bail-out and the resignation of the country’s prime minister. Kevin Featherstone argues that, while the situation has now stabilised, instability and uncertainty still remain. European and global economic institutions will be keeping a close eye on the Greece’s political developments.

Directly electing mayors on the London model is back on the political agenda. Eleven core English cities will be voting in May 2012 to decide whether they want to have one. These votes may radically increase the number of elected mayors and set city government decisively on a new path. But there may be fierce resistance may from local politicians and political parties who prefer the council model. Professor Wyn Grant reviews the field of debate.

Politicians and Rhetoric will interest those fascinated with linguistics, rhetoric and political communication, providing a lucid insight into the way metaphors and political myths are developed by politicians seeking to achieve an intended effect, finds Joel Suss. Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. Jonathan Charteris-Black. Palgrave MacMillan. September 2011.

As political scientists and commentators watch and wait for local election results to come in, what many will find most shocking, although not surprising, are the low voter turn out rates. It seems that the British public remain largely disinterested in elections, a problem also encountered in the AV referendum. Kerwin Datu reviews this recent book on the mistakes and delusions of the Yes campaign, noting that lessons must be learned before we see any new wave of political interest. Don’t Take No for an Answer: The 2011 Referendum and the Future of Electoral Reform. Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie. Biteback Publishing. September 2011.

Lewis Baston is a UK political analyst and commentator writing on topics ranging from elections, history and corruption. He tells us how his interest in political science was influenced early by his father’s academic career and their proximity to the University of Southampton library with its endless amount of books in politics and history. He deeply admires David Butler’s election studies for giving narrative excitement to the UK’s most defining elections and explains how these studies continue to inform his approach to politics.

Are Islam and democracy compatible? What is the role of democracy in the future of the Muslim world? In this book, Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai aim to offer a comprehensive view of the complex nature of contemporary political Islam and its relationship to democracy. Amani El Sehrawey finds this book an invaluable tool for those seeking to gain knowledge of the nuances of the political systems of the Muslim world from a historical perspective, as well as to understand the contemporary changes happening in the region.

"The Rise of the Regulatory State of the South: Infrastructure and Development in Emerging Economies." Navroz K. Dubash and Bronwen Morgan (eds.). Oxford University Press. July 2013. --- This volume seeks to explore the emergence of regulatory agencies in a range of developing countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, focusing on telecommunications, electricity, and water. The authors hope that understanding the regulatory state of the south, and particularly forms of accommodation to political pressures, could stimulate a broader conversation around the role of the regulatory state in both north and south. This book will provide valuable theoretical and empirical material to people working in economics, development, political science and law, writes Matt Birkinshaw.

This essay analyzes Andreas Papandreou’s skill as a political “story teller.” For a great majority of the Greek population, it is his narrative, his tale of modern Greece, the essay argues, that has become the accepted one. It was his narrative that helped bring and keep him in power for eleven years. One of the building blocks was an innate talent to draw conclusions and persuade the audience using events from his own personal experience – life in the first person. Another element was his academic background and a natural linguistic fluency. The analysis emphasizes his rhetorical devices and draws from the tropes of literature (metaphor, simile, suspense) to complete the standard portrait usually provided by political scientists and historians.

A shortage of resources and a shortage of risk-pooling has meant that the long-term care of older people has suffered from a political and governance failures. James Lloyd, argues that political scientists need to direct their attention towards social care, with more concerted, detailed studies which will provide evidence to address policy problems.

One of President Obama’s most important tasks upon entering office in 2008 was the filling of more than 3,000 appointed positions within the federal government. But what governed these appointments, policy expertise or political reasons such as campaign experience? By studying more than 1,300 of Obama’s presidential appointments Gary E. Hollibaugh, Jr., Gabriel Horton, and David E. Lewis find that he appointed individuals with policy expertise to agencies responsible for policies on his agenda and those who were more conservative. They write that more liberal agencies tended to have more appointees with campaign experience or political connections rather than policy expertise.

Empirical social science often relies on data that are not observed in the field, but are transformed into quantitative variables by expert researchers who analyze and interpret qualitative raw sources. While generally considered the most valid way to produce data, this expert-driven process is inherently difficult to replicate or to assess on grounds of reliability. Using crowd-sourcing to distribute text for reading and interpretation by massive numbers of non-experts, we generate results comparable to those using experts to read and interpret the same texts, but do so far more quickly and flexibly. Crucially, the data we collect can be reproduced and extended transparently, making crowd-sourced datasets intrinsically reproducible. This focuses researchers’ attention on the fundamental scientific objective of specifying reliable and replicable methods for collecting the data needed, rather than on the content of any particular dataset. We also show that our approach works straightforwardly with different types of political text, written in different languages. While findings reported here concern text analysis, they have far-reaching implications for expert-generated data in the social sciences.

Why have American political parties become more and more polarized and divided in recent years? While many commentators blame societal developments such as increasing inequality, or strengthening ideologies, new research by Ashley Jochim and Bryan Jones point towards the role of issue-based polarization since the 1960s, and argue that politics cannot be separated from the policies in which they originate. They write that polarization has not developed in a way that affects all issues equally; issues such as science, foreign trade, business and defense have more dimensions of conflict than issues such as labor, employment, housing and health care.