This book is the first systematic scientific study of global quasi-legislation. Taking public opinion and multilateral agreements as the international equivalent to national election and passing laws on the national scale, and extending nation-state concepts to a global society, it analyzes citizens' preferences and the state's willingness to enter into 120 multilateral treaties. After identifying the links as a first step toward conceptualizing quasi-legislative global politics, the book examines how each of the 193 states manifests quasi-legislative behavior by factor-analyzing six instrumental variables such as treaty participation index and six policy domains of multilateral treaties, including peace and trade. It then discusses global change between 1989 and 2008, and conceptually and empirically examines the three theories of global politics that originated during that period: the theory of power transition, theory of civilizational clash and theory of global legislative politics. Lastly, it proposes a theory of global legislative politics. Shedding fresh light on the transformative nature of multilateral treaties, this book attracts researchers and students in political philosophy, international law and international relations as well as practitioners and journalists. Inoguchi and Le have developed a genuinely original perspective on world politics, one that opens up a new research agenda for thinking about state and global actors simultaneously.-- Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University This is one of those books that warrant a global readership given its emphasis on the implied trust that we invest in public institutions as viewed from an interdisciplinary perspective. -- Richard J. Estes, Professor of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania This book is innovative and distinctive in carving out a new way to look at “global legislative politics.” I do not know of anything that compares in this interesting and novel niche of international relations analysis.-- William R. Thompson, Distinguished Professor and Rogers Chair of Political Science Emeritus, Indiana University

Politics is intuitively about relationships, but until recently the network perspective has not been a dominant part of the methodological paradigm that political scientists use to study politics. This volume is a foundational statement about networks in the study of politics.

Examined the development of legislatures under colonial rule, post-colonial autocratic single party rule, and multi-party politics in Africa.

Legislatures are arguably the most important political institution in modern democracies. The Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies, written by some of the most distinguished legislative scholars in political science, provides a comprehensive and up-to-date description and critical assessment of the state of the art in this key area.

Legislative debates make democracy and representation work. Political actors engage in legislative debates to make their voice heard to voters. Parties use debates to shore up their brand. This book makes the most comprehensive study of legislative debates thus far, looking at the politics of legislative debates in 33 liberal democracies in Europe, North America and Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The book begins with theoretical chapters focused on the key concepts in the study of legislative debates. Michael Laver, Slapin and Proksch, and Taylor examine the politics of legislative debates in parliamentary and presidential democracies. Subsequently, Goplerud makes a critical review of the methodological challenges in the study of legislative debates. Schwalbach and Rauh further discuss the difficulties in the comparative empirical study of debates. Country-chapters offer a wealth of original material organized around structured sections. Each chapter begins with a details discussion of the institutional design, focusing on the electoral system, legislative organization, and party parties, to which a section on the formal and informal rules of legislative debates ensues. Next, each country chapter focuses on analyzing the determinants of floor access, with a particular emphasis on the role of gender, seniority, legislative party positions, among others. In the concluding chapter, the editors explore comparative patterns and point out to multiple research avenues opened by this edited volume. The Oxford Politics of Institutions series is designed to provide in-depth coverage of research on a specific political institution. Each volume includes a mix of theoretical contributions, state-of-the-art research review chapters, comparative empirical chapters, country case study chapters, and chapters aimed at practitioners. Typically, the majority of chapters in each volume comprises of country studies written by country experts. Volumes in the series are aimed at political scientists, students in political science programmes, social scientists more generally, and policy practitioners. Series editors: Shane Martin, Anthony King Chair in Comparative Government and Head of the Department of Government, University of Essex; and Sona N. Golder, Professor of Politics, Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University.

The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) carry out their mission to alleviate poverty and promote economic growth based on the advice of professional economists. But as Sarah Babb argues in Behind the Development Banks, these organizations have also been indelibly shaped by Washington politics—particularly by the legislative branch and its power of the purse. Tracing American influence on MDBs over three decades, this volume assesses increased congressional activism and the perpetual “selling” of banks to Congress by the executive branch. Babb contends that congressional reluctance to fund the MDBs has enhanced the influence of the United States on them by making credible America’s threat to abandon the banks if its policy preferences are not followed. At a time when the United States’ role in world affairs is being closely scrutinized, Behind the Development Banks will be necessary reading for anyone interested in how American politics helps determine the fate of developing countries.

The study of law and politics is one of the foundation stones of the discipline of political science, and it has been one of the most productive areas of cross-fertilization between the various subfields of political science and between political science and other cognate disciplines. This Handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the field of law and politics in all its diversity, ranging from such traditional subjects as theories of jurisprudence, constitutionalism, judicial politics and law-and-society to such re-emerging subjects as comparative judicial politics, international law, and democratization. The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics gathers together leading scholars in the field to assess key literatures shaping the discipline today and to help set the direction of research in the decade ahead.