Leading scholars examine contemporary democracy, constitution-making in the EU, tort reform and the future of public choice.

In Policy Challenges and Political Responses, leading public choice scholars confront the most significant problems facing democratic societies at the dawn of the 21st century. Ranging widely across the policy spectrum, this authoritative volume demonstrates the vibrancy and continuing relevance of the public choice research program by applying its ideas and methods to constitution-making in the European Union, terrorism, the growth of government, political campaign finance, vote-counting technologies, participatory democracy, corporate governance, school choice, and tort reform. Essays assessing the present state of the social contract and the enduring tensions between capitalism, socialism, and democracy broaden the book’s perspective. The distinguished list of contributors includes James Buchanan, Charles Rowley, Dennis Mueller, Todd Sandler, Randall Holcombe, Michael Munger, Thomas Stratmann, Harold Mulherin, Lawrence Kenny, and Paul Rubin. Edited by two of the editors of the journal Public Choice and as fresh as today’s headlines, this volume positions the public choice literature in the context of current events and points its research agenda in new directions. It is a unique and indispensable collection of value to economists, political scientists, political philosophers, and public policymakers.

This is a first edition core text for freshman/sophomore-level courses on International Relations—the second largest course market in political science. Introduction to international politics courses typically have multiple goals. On the one hand, instructors seek to introduce students to the discipline through readings and discussions of foundational theoretical perspectives and ongoing debates. On the other hand, instructors seek to help students become informed participants in policy debates about foreign policy and international politics issues by highlighting pressing contemporary issues. Effectively addressing both concerns requires more than simply including both topics in the course syllabus or in a textbook. It requires making systematic linkages between theory and policy. This is a long standing challenge in international politics, one raised many years ago by Alexander George in Bridging the Gap in which he called for greater communication between academic scholars and practitioners. This text seeks to link theory and policy in an organized and efficient fashion that does not ignore or slight the conceptual discussion of international relations or simply chase newspaper headlines. Chapters are organized around “Global Challenges and Policy Responses.” The challenges are presented as concrete policy problems relevant to the theme of the chapter. The discussion of responses emphasize concrete actions being taken or proposed by international organizations, the foreign policies of key states, international agreements, and actions taken by NGOs. Theoretical insights are used to help students understand challenges, think about solutions, and learn from the past.

This book explores the emerging challenges to foreign policymaking in liberal democracies and the adequacy of the 'marketplace of ideas' in responding to these challenges. Looking at foreign policy challenges as diverse as democratization, globalization and climate change, from the role of values in environmental debate to the Iraq invasion and the war on drugs, the contributors critically examine how key global issues are framed in public debate across three of the world's most mature liberal democracies: the US, the UK, and Australia. The book contributes to a better understanding of the limits of the 'marketplace of ideas' in helping to produce wise and accountable policy, and how those limits may soon be overcome. Examining how key global issues are framed in foreign policy debate across a range of liberal democratic societies, this book will strongly appeal to academics and students with an interest in international relations, policymaking and politics, as well as to governmental and think tank policymakers and advisors.

This is a first edition core text for freshman/sophomore-level courses on International Relations--the second largest course market in political science. This book makes systematic linkages between theory and policy that do not ignore or slight the conceptual discussion of international relations or simply chase newspaper headlines.

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.