Why do politicians never seem to cut government spending? Using public choice economics, Professor Ben Powell of Suffolk University explains why it's difficult to cut policies with concentrated benefits and dispersed costs.

Public choice economics uses economic tools to study political behavior. This reading list provides students with an introduction to important concepts in public choice economics, like logrolling and rent seeking, as well as some of the discipline's most important figures such as James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock.

The video resource "Public Opinion: Crash Course Government and Politics #33" is included in the "U.S. Government and Politics" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) aimed to halt atrocities as they occurred and rebuild and reconstruct societies in the wake of such crimes. It represented the policy realization of the statement never again. Now a growing international norm, the R2P cuts to the core of what it means to be a moral player in the international arena. With contributions from many of the world’s most respected R2P experts and practitioners, this Edited Collection attempts to draw attention to the major points of contention that have been highlighted by the Western intervention in Libya following the Arab Spring.

The purpose of this book is to appraise the current relevance and validity of realism as an interpretative tool in contemporary International Relations. All chapters of the book are animated by a theoretical effort to define the conceptual aspects of realism and attempt to establish whether the tradition still provides the necessary conceptual tools to scholars. The chapters address important issues in contemporary world politics through the lens of realist theory such as the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East; the war against ISIS; the appearance of non-state actors and outlaw agents; the rise of China; cyberwarfare; human rights and humanitarian law. The collection also provides insights on some of the theoretical tenets of classical and structural realism. Overall, the collection shows that, in spite of its many shortcomings, realism still offers a multifaceted understanding of world politics and enlightens the increasing challenges of world politics.

This book exposes a much needed discussion on the interconnectedness between objects, organisms, machines and elemental forces. It seeks to disturb dogmatic ontologies that privilege human life and successfully questions the separation between the natural and human worlds. By doing so, the collection confronts, challenges, and energises discussion beyond International Relations’ traditional territorial lines. By revealing the fragility of mainstream narratives of the ‘human,’ each author in this collection contributes to an unsettling vision of a posthuman world. Questions of what the future beyond the Anthropocene looks like pervasively infiltrate the collection and move away from a system that all too often relies on binary relationships. In contrast to this binary view of the world, the book (re)entagles the innate complexities found within the world and brings forward a plurality of views on posthumanism.

Indigenous peoples around the world find themselves locked in power struggles with dominant states and transnational actors who resist their claims to land, culture, political recognition and other key factors associated with the idea of national self-determination. In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – suggesting that an important attitudinal shift might now be taking place internationally. Yet, as this volume’s contributors suggest, much more work is needed in terms of understanding what Indigenous self-determination means in theory and how it is to be achieved in practice.

This collection features seven articles which tackle the subject of religion and its resurgence in international politics from diverse approaches.

What is "classical liberalism?" Is it a specific set of beliefs, a philosophy, an economic theory, or something else? In this video mini-course, Dr. Nigel Ashford of the Institute for Humane Studies explores what classical liberalism -- sometimes referred to as "libertarianism" -- actually means. Dr. Ashford looks at 5 different schools of classical liberalism, and examines their similarities and differences.

In the eighteenth century, Scotland experienced a period of great intellectual achievement. The political, economic, and philosophical ideas that came out of the Scottish Enlightenment still have a huge influence on our world today, especially those of Adam Smith and David Hume. This reading list provides an introduction to the ideas of the two economists and philosophers, especially on political economy and the nature of justice.

The video resource "Search and Seizure: Crash Course Government and Politics #27" is included in the "U.S. Government and Politics" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.

The video resource "Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances: Crash Course Government and Politics #3" is included in the "U.S. Government and Politics" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.

The video resource "Sex Discrimination: Crash Course Government and Politics #30" is included in the "U.S. Government and Politics" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.

The video resource "Shaping Public Opinion: Crash Course Government and Politics #34" is included in the "U.S. Government and Politics" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.

The video resource "Social Policy: Crash Course Government and Politics #49" is included in the "U.S. Government and Politics" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.

Sounds of War, by Susanna Hast, is a book on the aesthetics of war experience in Chechnya. It includes theory on, and stories of, compassion, dance, children’s agency and love. It is not simply a book to be read, but to be listened to. The chapters begin with the author’s own songs expressing research findings and methodology in musical form. Susanna Hast is Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher with a project “Bodies in War, Bodies in Dance” (2017–2020) at the Theatre Academy Helsinki, University of the Arts. She does artistic research on emotions, embodiment and war and teaches dance for immigrant and asylum-seeking women in Finland.

The 2014 Russia–Ukraine conflict has transformed relations between Russia and the West into what many are calling a new cold war. The West has slowly come to understand that Russia’s annexations and interventions, interference in elections, cyber warfare, disinformation, assassinations in Europe and support for anti-EU populists emerge from Vladimir Putin’s belief that Russia is at war with the West. This book shows that the crisis has deep roots in Russia’s inability to come to terms with an independent Ukrainian state, Moscow’s view of the Orange and Euromaidan revolutions as Western conspiracies and, finally, its inability to understand that most Russian-speaking Ukrainians do not want to rejoin Russia. In Moscow’s eyes, Ukraine is central to rebuilding a sphere of influence within the former Soviet space and to re-establishing Russia as a great power. The book shows that the wide range of ‘hybrid’ tactics that Russia has deployed show continuity with the actions of the Soviet-era security services.

This thought experiment, based on an essay by Professor Thomas Nagel, Philosopher at New York University, encourages students to question the morality of intervention. Professor Nagel attempted to liberate a spider he found living in a urinal from it is seemingly terrible living situation, only to find it dead the next day. Wracked with guilt, he began to question his decision. Should he have moved the spider? What would you have done?

State and local government are the most visible levels of government in the United States. As you leave your family house, apartment, or school dormitory you encounter state and local government services, programs and infrastructure. From traffic lights, streets and highways, water and sewer services, K-12 education, higher education, parks, mass transit, law enforcement, utilities, communications and mass media, and many other activities, state and local governments are either directly involved in offering these services or in regulating organizations hired to provide such services. From the 50 states to the 3,031 county, 19,519 municipal, 16,360 town or township, and 51,146 special purpose governments (which could include school, hospital districts, rural fire districts, soil conservation districts, irrigation districts, regional transportation districts, and many more), the typical citizen encounters state and local government services and programs on a daily basis.

The video resource "Structure of the Court System: Crash Course Government and Politics #19" is included in the "U.S. Government and Politics" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.