Political Science Course Guide - Indianapolis

For most Western governments, defending against the threat of infectious disease is now an accepted security priority. Deciding what resources and policies to put in place to protect populations from pandemics, however, involves difficult political choices. How can we get these decisions right? And what are we prepared to sacrifice to achieve better health security? In this book, Simon Rushton explores the politics of pandemics in the contemporary world. Looking back over three decades of public health, he traces national and international efforts to tackle infectious disease, focusing in-depth on three core areas in which securitization has been particularly successful: rapidly spreading pandemic diseases, HIV/AIDS and man-made pathogenic threats, such as biological weapons. Three central problems raised by common responses to disease as a security threat are then examined: the impact upon individuals and civil liberties; the tendency to treat the symptoms and not the underlying causes of disease outbreaks; and the limited range of diseases deemed worthy of global attention and action. Arguing against a tendency to treat global health security as a technical challenge, the book stresses the need for a vibrant, and even confrontational, political engagement around the implications of securitizing public health.

The Introduction of “World Protests: A Study of Key Protest Issues in the 21st Century” provides the background and methodology of the study, including the countries covered. It also describes the structure of the volume chapter by chapter, from protestors’ demands and methods to achievements and repression, guiding the reader through the content of the book. An annex presents 250 methods of non-violent protest.

Analyses specific social policy fields and the roles, characteristics or functions of single IOs and IOs within their organizational contexts. Compares IO populations across different social policy fields. Allows readers to better understand the discourses of IOs and how they influence national policies and the international community by means of soft governance

Provides a nuanced understanding of specific social policy developments at discrete points in history. Paints a complex picture of how national and global come together through social policy. Explores the interplay of international developments and national policies for single countries. This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access.

Combining theory with compelling case studies, this book examines the globalizing world of democracy. Noted critical scholars Stephen J. Rosow and Jim George argue that democracy must be understood not as a unified concept but as a diversity of political responses to specific conditions and political struggles. Doing so reveals how democracy is taking multiple forms around the world in response to neoliberal globalism and the increasing pace and complexity of everyday life. The authors show how the current phase of globalization is destabilizing the dominance of Western democracy promotion as resisters challenge common understandings and forms of democracy. Explaining the theory behind neoliberal globalization and democracy promotion, they consider its impact and struggles against it in South Africa, post-Soviet Russia, India, and Venezuela and other "pink tide" states in Latin America. Rosow and George also examine how digital communications networks, the centralization of security, and the fluid movements of people and ideas are destabilizing traditional democratic theories. At the same time, they give rise to concepts of democracy that focus on new forms of citizenship and democratic participation, a cosmopolitan democratic constitutionalism, cross-boundary political activism, and local and community-based economic and democratic practices.