The extent to which the regulatory environment in developing countries influences the characteristics and growth potential of the urban informal sector is an issue much debated today, in large part because of its strong association with policy measures. Of particular concern is the effect of regulations on microenterprises, in terms of both "start up" and the capacity for expansion. This    More >

The authors of Reinventing Government for the Twenty-First Century meld theory with practice to offer sound advice for public leaders and administrators who seek to create the structures and processes needed to increase state capacity and benefit from participation in an increasingly integrated and interdependent world.    More >

The US Congress has long reflected the intersection of faith and politics, with religious convictions often informing legislative agendas. The authors of Religion and Congress examine that complex relationship, focusing on its historical foundations, contemporary congressional behavior, and policy outcomes. Drawing on both in-depth research and firsthand experience, they explore how religious    More >

Choice Outstanding Academic Book! What is Wahhabism? What is its relationship with the Saudi state? Does it play a part in Islamist terrorist threats? These are among the complex questions tackled in Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia. Moving from the historical, social, and political contexts in which Wahhabism originated and flourished to its current internal divisions and its impact on    More >

The premise of this new text is straightforward: Religion matters in world politics. Therefore, to comprehend the world around us, we need to understand how and why religion matters, analyze the interaction in a systematic way, and have a framework in which to fit facts and events that we cannot yet anticipate. The goal of Religion and Politics on the World Stage is to provide the information and    More >

Kent Kerley explores the issue of religion in prison, offering a rich portrait of religious practices and their impacts. Kerley shows how offenders of all stripes use faith to adapt and survive in difficult institutional settings. He sheds light on the complex processes of religious conversion, discusses the development of tools for "staying straight" in and after prison, and reveals    More >

While existing scholarship addresses the influence of religious affiliation on political attitudes and behaviors in the United States, a number of puzzling questions remain unanswered. In response, Matthew Miles demonstrates that a more complete conceptualization of religion as a social identity can help to explain many of those puzzles. As he explores the impact, both positive and negative, of    More >

This book outlines key facets of the authors' five year development project on sex tourism and prostitution in the Philippines, and is a powerful reflection on the raging debates taking place among feminists about the Third World. Ralston and Keeble follow the history of prostitution in former military outpost Angeles City, the women and foreign men who live by the trade and the varied    More >

Analyzing some thirty policy decisions across three countries and five decades, Sieglinde Gstöhl considers why some countries continue to be "reluctant Europeans."   Typically, small and highly industrialized states are expected to be more likely to integrate than are larger or less advanced countries. Why, then, did Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland choose for so long not to    More >

National Jewish Book Awards Finalist When the Germans overpowered the Netherlands in 1940, there were some 140,000 Dutch citizens who were considered Jews by Nationalist Socialist standards; more than half of them, about 80,000, lived in Amsterdam. Remembering Jewish Amsterdam is a celebration of their lives. The book consists of selections from seventy-seven interviews with Holocaust survivors    More >