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The first systematic examination of the federal civil service in nearly forty years, The Foundation of Merit analyzes the historical development of the civil service in the context of the political and democratic environment that is central to its effectiveness and legitimacy. Patricia Ingraham describes theincremental and disjointed growth of the federal civil service and explains how, and why, it came to be a system with control in the wrong places, with discretion in the wrong places, and why -- in its current form -- it has little hope of meeting the enormous challenges of the next century.

The book concludes with an examination of the need for reform, the challenges that have shaped that need, and the lessons from the past that should guide the reforms of the future.

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From the Republican Party's "Southern Strategy" in the U.S. to the rise of Le Pen's National Front in France, conservative politicians in the last thirty years have capitalized on voters' resentment of ethnic minorities to win votes and undermine government aid to the poor. In this book, the authors construct a theoretical model to calculate the effect of voters' attitudes about race and immigration on political parties' stances on income distribution.

Drawing on empirical data from the U.S., Britain, Denmark, and France, they use their model to show how parties choose their platforms and compete for votes. They find that the Right is able to push fiscal policies that hurt working and middle class citizens by attracting voters who may be liberal on economic issues but who hold conservative views on race or immigration. The authors estimate that if all voters held non-racist views, liberal and conservative parties alike would have proposed levels of redistribution 10 to 20 percent higher than they did. Combining historical analysis and empirical rigor with major theoretical advances, the book yields fascinating insights into how politicians exploit social issues to advance their economic agenda.

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The forces of globalization affect the world of politics and business in powerfulways.Electronic media, instant communication, and the free flow of goods and services exertpressure on societies to adapt to new ways of life.But they also allow for the rapiddissemination of new ideas and perspectives, and have made possible the spreading ofdemocratic values and open societies.This new environment presents both challenges andopportunities for foundations.They are called upon to adopt new roles that were once thedomain of state and governmental institutions.At the same time, they are asked to perform themin better and more efficient ways.In addition, international integration mandates that theirperspectives and strategies transcend national borders.This book contains the proceedings of aninternational symposium hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation.It documents the growingconsensus that in the open society it is not enough for foundations to do good; they have to do itwell. ... Read more

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Dr. Sharp argues that two fundamental strategies are necessary to create lasting peace in the world: facilitating the spread of democracy and maintaining comprehensive deterrence mechanisms targeted at individual world leaders. He surveys conventional approaches to avoiding war and presents evidence to validate the democratic peace principle (the notion that democracies are inherently more peaceful than nondemocracies) and the incentive theory of war avoidance, formulated by John Norton Moore. Dr. Sharp proposes a mathematical formula that can be used to predict the probability of peace for a given nation. Comprehensive tables collate data from multiple sources on freedom and human development in nations around the world. ... Read more

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Dry Bones Rattling offers the first in-depth treatment of how to rebuild the social capital of America's communities while promoting racially inclusive, democratic participation. The Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) network in Texas and the Southwest is gaining national attention as a model for reviving democratic life in the inner city--and beyond. This richly drawn study shows how the IAF network works with religious congregations and other community-based institutions to cultivate the participation and leadership of Americans most left out of our elite-centered politics. Interfaith leaders from poor communities of color collaborate with those from more affluent communities to build organizations with the power to construct affordable housing, create job-training programs, improve schools, expand public services, and increase neighborhood safety.

In clear and accessible prose, Mark Warren argues that the key to revitalizing democracy lies in connecting politics to community institutions and the values that sustain them. By doing so, the IAF network builds an organized, multiracial constituency with the power to advance desperately needed social policies. While Americans are most aware of the religious right, Warren documents the growth of progressive faith-based politics in America. He offers a realistic yet hopeful account of how this rising trend can transform the lives of people in our most troubled neighborhoods. Drawing upon six years of original fieldwork, Dry Bones Rattling proposes new answers to the problems of American democracy, community life, race relations, and the urban crisis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Dry Bones Rattling
My professor used this book for a civic engagement class.The book examines a model of mobilizing citizens to achieve a common good.While it discusses using a religious foundation to define common moral good and how the church is an inevitable base for community organizing in the poorest neighborhoods in the United States, it also realizes the limitations of religion.Also, the organization examined in Dry Bones Rattling, IAF, attempted to bridge social capital based on a model of only bridging racial differences.Warren effectively demonstrates that it is futile to bridge solely along racial lines and limit the societal battle only against racism because concerns about education, economic issues and healthcare are other problems that our society faces.

Capturing the story
Most books from the Ivory Tower about community organizers tend to leave out the human side of things.Instead, Warren makes such efforts come alive on a human level.Not only does he capture the challenges the group faces, he captures the story.He lets the organizers speak directly to the reader.As more and more of the nation's big cities become "majority minority," we willneed books like this one that address head-on thorny issues of cross-racial cooperation.Bottom line:it's a very entertaining read. ... Read more

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In a ground-breaking series of articles, one of them written bya Nobel Laureate, this volume demonstrates the evolutionary dynamicand the transformation of today's democratic societies intoscientific-democratic societies. It highlights the progress ofmodeling individual and societal evaluation by neo-Bayesian utilitytheory. It shows how social learning and collective opinion formationwork, and how democracies cope with randomness caused by randomizers.Nonlinear `evolution equations' and serial stochastic matrices ofevolutionary game theory allow us to optimally compute possible serialevolutionary solutions of societal conflicts. But in democraciesprogress can be defined as any positive, gradual, innovative andcreative change of culturally used, transmitted and stored mentifacts(models, theories), sociofacts (customs, opinions), artifacts andtechnifacts, within and across generations. The most important changesare caused, besides randomness, by conflict solutions and theirrealizations by citizens who follow democratic laws. These lawscorrespond to the extended Pareto principle, a supreme, socioethicaldemocratic rule. According to this principle, progress is any increasein the individual and collective welfare which is achieved during anyevolutionary progress.
Central to evolutionary modeling is the criterion of the empiricalrealization of computed solutions. Applied to serial conflictsolutions (decisions), evolutionary trajectories are formed; theybecome the most influential causal attractors of the channeling ofsocietal evolution. Democratic constitutions, legal systems etc.,store all advantageous, present and past, adaptive, competitive,cooperative and collective solutions and their rules; they have beenaccepted by majority votes. Societal laws are codes of statutes(default or statistical rules), and they serve to optimally solvesocietal conflicts, in analogy to game theoretical models or tostatistical decision theory. Such solutions become necessary when weface harmful or advantageous random events always lurking at the edgeof societal and external chaos.
The evolutionary theory of societal evolution in democracies presentsa new type of stochastic theory; it is based on default rules andstresses realization. The rules represent the change of ourdemocracies into information, science and technology-based societies;they will revolutionize social sciences, especially economics. Theirmethods have already found their way into neural brain physiology andresearch into intelligence. In this book, neural activity and thecreativity of human thinking are no longer regarded aslinear-deductive. Only evolutive nonlinear thinking can includemultiple causal choices by many individuals and the risks of internaland external randomness; this serves the increasing welfare of allindividuals and society as a whole.
Evolution and Progress in Democracies is relevant for socialscientists, economists, evolution theorists, statisticians,philosophers, philosophers of science, and interdisciplinaryresearchers. ... Read more

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This is the first systematic anthology combining the major writings of Communism, Fascism, and Democracy ... Read more

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The Foundations of Democracy Series consists of curricular materials for students from kindergarten through twelfth grade on four concepts fundamental to an understanding of politics and government: Authority, Privacy, Responsibility, and Justice. This multidisciplinary curriculum draws upon such fields as political philosophy, political science, law, history, literature, and environmental studies. The Authority curriculum helps students # distinguish between authority and power # examine different sources of authority # use reasonable criteria for selecting people for positions of authority and for evaluating rules and laws # analyze benefits and costs of authority # evaluate, take, and defend positions on the proper scope and limits of authority The Privacy curriculum helps students # understand the importance of privacy in a free society # analyze the benefits and costs of privacy # evaluate, take, and defend positions on the proper scope and limits of privacy The Responsibility curriculum helps students # understand the importance of responsibility in a free society # analyze the benefits and costs of responsibility # evaluate, take, and defend positions on how conflicts among competing responsibilities should be resolved # evaluate, take, and defend positions on personal responsibility The Justice curriculum helps students # understand and apply the basic principles of justice set forth in fundamental documents of our political and legal systems # consider fair distribution of the benefits and burdens of society # consider fair responses to remedy wrongs and injuries # consider fair practices for gathering information and making decisions # evaluate, take, and defend positions on issues of justice ... Read more