Playing Politics, a rational-choice workbook of sixteen games, is designed to help students understand the logic behind political decision-making, from creating a constitution to formulating foreign policy.

Pay-to-Play Politics examines money and politics from different angles to understand a central paradox of American democracy: why, when the public and politicians decry money as the worst aspect of American politics, are there so few signs of change? Everyone from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders to Ted Cruz complains about the corrupting role of money and politics, but money is the lifeblood of their political survival. The public, too, deplores big money politics, despite regularly reelecting the richest candidates for office. The purpose of this book is to reconcile how—against many people's wishes—the connection between money and politics has come to define American democracy. Examining the issue from the perspective of the public, the courts, big business, Congress, and the presidency, Heath Brown argues that money can often be harmful to the political process, but not always in ways we expect or in ways we can directly observe. More money does not necessarily guarantee electoral, legislative, or executive victories, but money does greatly change political access, opportunity, and trust. Without a nuanced understanding of the nature of the problem, future reforms will be misguided and fruitless. Pay-to-Play Politics concludes by making concrete recommendations for reform, including feasible ways to reach bipartisan consensus.

A journey through the uncomputable remains of computer history Narrating some lesser known episodes from the deep history of digital machines, Alexander R. Galloway explains the technology that drives the world today, and the fascinating people who brought these machines to life. With an eye to both the computable and the uncomputable, Galloway shows how computation emerges or fails to emerge, how the digital thrives but also atrophies, how networks interconnect while also fray and fall apart. By re-building obsolete technology using today's software, the past comes to light in new ways, from intricate algebraic patterns woven on a hand loom, to striking artificial-life simulations, to war games and back boxes. A description of the past, this book is also an assessment of all that remains uncomputable as we continue to live in the aftermath of the long digital age.

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Playing Tough is an entertaining and thoroughly enlightening look at the unique and surprisingly outsized role that sports have played in politics and history. Ever since the bread and circuses of Rome, sports have been used as a tool to entertain the masses and to instill civic pride. Abrams shows both the positive and the negative ways in which sports and politics have coalesced, from the rabid nationalism of the 1936 Nazi Olympics, the political grudge match of the Louis and Schmeling fights, and the "futbol war" between Honduras and Costa Rica to the inspiring stories of South Africa's rugby nation-building and Muhammad Ali's brave antiwar stance, which nearly cost him his career. Abrams is an informed and impassioned writer who chronicles the profoundly creative and destructive influence that sports have on the political life of our nation and the world. This book will be of interest to any and all sports and politics enthusiasts and is a wonderful introduction for course creation and adoption.

‘...a fascinating account of one of the most important figures in PNG's first 40 years of Independence.’ – Sean Dorney, journalistBorn on a remote island in Papua New Guinea to a migrant Chinese father and indigenous mother, Julius Chan overcame poverty, discrimination, and family tragedy to become one of Papua New Guinea’s longest-serving and most influential politicians.His 50-year career, including two terms as Prime Minister, encompasses a crucial period of Papua New Guinea’s history, particularly its coming of age from an Australian colony to a leading democratic nation in the South Pacific. Chan has played a significant role during these decades of political, economic and social change. Playing the Game offers unique insights into one of the world’s most ancient and complex tribal cultures. It also explores the vexed issues of increasing corruption, government failure, and the unprecedented exploitation of its precious natural resources.In the first memoir by a Papua New Guinean leader in forty years, Sir Julius Chan explores his decision in 1997 to hire a private military force, Sandline International, to quell the ongoing civil crisis in Bougainville. This controversial deal sparked worldwide outrage, cost Sir Julius the prime ministership and led to ten years in the political wilderness. He was re-elected as Governor of New Ireland in 2007, aged 68, a seat he has held ever since.Playing the Game is an authentic and compelling account of Chan’s private and political life, and offers a rare insight into how the modern nation of Papua New Guinea came to be, the vision and values it was founded on, and the extraordinary challenges it faces in the 21st century.

Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture journeys from ancient folkloric appearances of Tricksters such as Raven and ṣ -Elegba, to their confined role in Western civilization, and then on to Trickster's 20th century jailbreak as led by dada and the hippies. Disruptive Play bears witness to how this spirit informs social progress today, whether by Anonymous, Banksy, Bugs Bunny, or unrevealed mischief-makers and culture jammers. Such play is revolutionary and lights the path to a transformed society. Original Play is the frolic and noncompetitive play that animals and human babies do in order to have fun and to keep on playing...not to win or to lose. It is a substance of the universe that occurs in all life. It is the behavior by which love and belonging are expressed, given, and received. When play moves into contest or other roles and rules, with winners and losers, it becomes Cultural Play. Issues of ego and narcissism are issues for Cultural Play, not for Original Play. Disruptive Play occurs in the rare times when the rhythms of Original Play suddenly appear in a political or cultural setting, settings conventionally fraught with Cultural Play. Like driving a clown car across the field during an official NFL game. Or Raven tricking Chief into releasing the sun, the moon, and the stars into the sky. Or a surreptitious Banksy graffiti that invades a museum or the public commons. Tricking power into performing an act of love. Disruptive Play: The Trickster In Politics and Culture connects knowledge from mythology, folklore, popular culture, art, politics, and play theory to make its casethatto be playful means not taking power seriously. At critical mass, power collapses and leaves us swimming about in the waters of the amoral Trickster.New values emerge and could lead to some version of the dystopia that currently drenches popular culture. Or, if people can discern between the authentic contact and exhilaration of play, and branded, mediated, alienated pleasure, then we just might stumble and frolic our way to the Play Society. Disurptive Play is ideal for enthusiasts of the human condition and those who hold out for the vision, however slim, of the Play Society.