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From the Affordable Care Act to No Child Left Behind, politicians often face a puzzling problem: although most Americans support the aims and key provisions of these policies, they oppose the bills themselves. How can this be? Why does the American public so often reject policies that seem to offer them exactly what they want? By the time a bill is pushed through Congress or ultimately defeated, we’ve often been exposed to weeks, months—even years—of media coverage that underscores the unpopular process of policymaking, and Mary Layton Atkinson argues that this leads us to reject the bill itself. Contrary to many Americans’ understandings of the policymaking process, the best answer to a complex problem is rarely self-evident, and politicians must weigh many potential options, each with merits and drawbacks. As the public awaits a resolution, the news media tend to focus not on the substance of the debate but on descriptions of partisan combat. This coverage leads the public to believe everyone in Washington has lost sight of the problem altogether and is merely pursuing policies designed for individual political gain. Politicians in turn exacerbate the problem when they focus their objections to proposed policies on the lawmaking process, claiming, for example, that a bill is being pushed through Congress with maneuvers designed to limit minority party input. These negative portrayals become linked in many people’s minds with the policy itself, leading to backlash against bills that may otherwise be seen as widely beneficial. Atkinson argues that journalists and educators can make changes to help inoculate Americans against the idea that debate always signifies dysfunction in the government. Journalists should strive to better connect information about policy provisions to the problems they are designed to ameliorate. Educators should stress that although debate sometimes serves political interests, it also offers citizens a window onto the lawmaking process that can help them evaluate the work their government is doing.

Mass media --- Political parties --- Political aspects --- Press coverage --- lawmaking. --- media coverage. --- partisan debate. --- policy making. --- political conflict. --- public opinion.

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Located in the war-torn eastern province of Sri Lanka, this book provides a rich ethnography of how Tamil-speaking communities in Batticaloa live through and make sense of a violence that shapes everyday life itself. The core of the book comes from the author's two-year close interaction with a group of (mainly women) human rights activists in the area. The book describes how the activists work in clandestine, informal ways to support families whose loved ones have been threatened, disappeared or killed and how they build networks of trust within the context of everyday violence. As Sri Lanka faces up to the enormity of the task of 'post-war reconciliation', this book aims to create a wider conversation about grief, resistance and healing in the context of violence and its long afterlife.

Tamil (Indic people) --- Violence --- Social conditions. --- Batticaloa District (Sri Lanka) --- Batticaloa. --- Liberation Tigers of Tamils Eelam. --- Sri Lanka. --- Tamil-speaking people. --- anthropological representations. --- ethnographic experiences. --- ethnographic narratives. --- everyday endurance. --- everyday violence. --- non-violent spaces. --- political conflict. --- tsunami.

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What is politics about? At its core, politics is about resolving matters that are contested in a society or group. It exists not only within and between states, but also within religious institutions, sports organisations, commercial enterprises, schools and social organisations. Politics is driven by conflict, but also by cooperation. To understand politics, we must ask specific ('key') questions about the nature of political conflict, about persons, groups and institutions that are involved, about their resources, and about the wider context that both constrains and provides opportunities for all. It also requires an understanding of concepts such as power, influence and political community, and, of course, of the terms politics, conflict and cooperation. This book is about the 'essence' of politics, which is introduced by way of key questions and concepts that are indispensable for understanding politics in many different settings.

Politics --- Social ethics. --- Political ethics. --- POLITICAL SCIENCE --- Ethics --- Social problems --- Sociology --- Ethics, Political --- Ethics in government --- Government ethics --- Political science --- Politics, Practical --- Civics --- Administration --- Civil government --- Commonwealth, The --- Government --- Political theory --- Political thought --- Science, Political --- Social sciences --- State, The --- General. --- Moral and ethical aspects --- Political Conflict. --- Political Cooperation, Political Community, Political System. --- Political Science. --- Politics. --- Power.

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"The Oil Wars Myth challenges the popular belief that countries fight wars for oil resources by identifying overlooked obstacles to these conflicts and reexamining the presumed petroleum motives for many of the twentieth century's major international wars"--

Petroleum industry and trade --- World politics --- War --- Politics and war. --- War and politics --- Causes of war --- Energy industries --- Oil industries --- Political aspects --- History --- Causes. --- World politics. --- Political aspects. --- Colonialism --- Global politics --- International politics --- Political history --- Political science --- World history --- Eastern question --- Geopolitics --- International organization --- International relations --- oil, natural resources, geo-political conflict, energy, US Foreign Policy.

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State trials provided some of the leading media events of later Stuart England. The more important of these trials attracted substantial public attention, serving as pivot points in the relationship between the state and its subjects. Later Stuart England has been known among legal historians for a series of key cases in which juries asserted their independence from judges. In political history, the government's sometimes shaky control over political trials in this period has long been taken as a sign of the waning power of the Crown. This book revisits the process by which the 'state trial' emerged as a legal proceeding, a public spectacle, a point of political conflict, and ultimately, a new literary genre. It investigates the trials as events, as texts, and as moments in the creation of historical memory. By the early nineteenth century, the publication and republication of accounts of the state trials had become a standard part of the way in which modern Britons imagined how their constitutional monarchy had superseded the absolutist pretensions of the Stuart monarchs. This book explores how the later Stuart state trials helped to create that world.

Trials --- Criminal law --- Justice, Administration of --- Monarchy --- Kingdom (Monarchy) --- Executive power --- Political science --- Royalists --- Administration of justice --- Law --- Courts --- Crime --- Crimes and misdemeanors --- Criminals --- Law, Criminal --- Penal codes --- Penal law --- Pleas of the crown --- Public law --- Criminal justice, Administration of --- Criminal procedure --- State trials --- Court proceedings --- Procedure (Law) --- History --- Law and legislation --- Legal status, laws, etc. --- Great Britain --- 1603-1799 --- Stuart monarchs. --- constitutional monarchy. --- historical memory. --- legal process. --- political conflict. --- state trials.