Public Opinion and the Political Future of the Nation's Capital

Public Opinion and the Political Future of the Nation's Capital
Author: Edward M. Meyers
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 1996-06-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781589014008

Despite widespread agreement that the District of Columbia's political system has collapsed, there is a serious lack of thoughtful proposals addressing the political future of the nation's capital. In this book, Edward M. Meyers examines the opinions of average Americans about Washington, D.C., in order to understand how many Americans are likely to approach the question of what reforms are needed. Meyers first explores the political, economic, and social conditions of the District, providing an informed context for understanding and evaluating its political options. Presenting the results of in-depth qualitative research with focus groups held across the country, Meyers reveals that regardless of the participants' knowledge about the District, their beliefs in six basic concepts or schemata—such as respect for democratic rights, attitudes about race, and aversion to an intrusive federal government—molded their opinions about various options for District self-governance. The book concludes with insights into the District by local and national political leaders, including OMB Director Alice Rivlin, Jesse Jackson, Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton, Thomas Davis, and James Walsh, and Marion Barry.

Global Trends 2040

Global Trends 2040
Author: National Intelligence Council
Publisher: Cosimo Reports
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2021-03
Genre:
ISBN: 9781646794973

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

The Politics of the Black Nation

The Politics of the Black Nation
Author: Georgia A. Persons
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2017-07-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351476734

This volume of the National Political Science Review, the official publication of the National Political Science Association, is anchored by a major symposium on The Politics of the Black "Nation," the book authored by Matthew Holden in 1973, which is now considered one of the most influential books in the field of black politics. Twenty-five years provide a sufficient timespan on which to base a retrospective of the book and simultaneously to reflect upon the evolution of the black liberation struggle, more formally called, African American politics. In the present age, there is not much talk about "a black nation," certainly not as was heard during the 1960s and mid-1970s. Yet there is a persistent sense of separateness in that there is constant thought and talk of "Black America" as a significantly separate communal entity. Black Americans are seen as a racially and culturally distinct community holding to social, political, economic interests which have special significance and poignancy for them. Holden's perception of the nature of the times in the early seventies stands in sharp contrast to how contemporary analysts of African American politics tend to perceive the nature of African Americans' role in political life and their position in American society in the present age. In this retrospective, readers have the opportunity to get a sense of what Holden argued of the seven essays that make up his seminal volume and to consider how well Holden's observations have stood the tests of time. In addition to the essays presented at the symposium, which pointedly discuss Holden's work, there are essays dealing with "African American Politics in Constancy and Change," by contributors including Charles Henry, David Covin, Robert C. Smith, Clyde Lusane, Cheryl Miller, D'Linell Finley, and Sekou Franklin, among others. Other features are a highly informative discussion of the Literary Digest magazine's Straw-Vote Presidential Polls, 1916-1936, and a

African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.

African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.
Author: Sabiyha Prince
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317184351

This book uses qualitative data to explore the experiences and ideas of African Americans confronting and constructing gentrification in Washington, D.C. It contextualizes Black Washingtonians’ perspectives on belonging and attachment during a marked period of urban restructuring and demographic change in the Nation’s Capital and sheds light on the process of social hierarchies and standpoints unfolding over time. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. emerges as a portrait of a heterogeneous African American population wherein members define their identity and culture as a people informed by the impact of injustice on the urban landscape. It presents oral history and ethnographic data on current and former African American residents of D.C. and combines these findings with analyses from institutional, statistical, and scholarly reports on wealth inequality, shortages in affordable housing, and rates of unemployment. Prince contends that gentrification seizes upon and fosters uneven development, vulnerability and alienation and contributes to classed and racialized tensions in affected communities in a book that will interest social scientists working in the fields of critical urban studies and urban ethnography. African Americans and Gentrification in Washington, D.C. will also invigorate discussions of neoliberalism, critical whiteness studies and race relations in the 21st Century.

Home Rule Or House Rule

Home Rule Or House Rule
Author: Michael K. Fauntroy
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2003
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780761827146

Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution of the United States grants Congress complete authority over the seat of government, the District of Columbia. This clause creates an infirmity that renders the residents of the District without the same measure of democracy enjoyed by Americans in the states. Various remedies have been attempted, none of which put the residents of the District on par with their fellow Americans. This book presents a political analysis of the relationship between Congress and the local government of Washington, D.C. It examines the influence of suburban members of Congress on District affairs, the fiscal crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, governmental inefficiency, and the Control Board.

Making Politics Work for Development

Making Politics Work for Development
Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2016-07-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1464807744

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.

The Last of the Black Emperors

The Last of the Black Emperors
Author: Jonetta Rose Barras
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0963124668

Offering a gripping, informative, and balanced assessment of Mayor Marion Barry, this book reveals how a crafty, first-generation civil rights era politician pulled off his amazing return to power. 24 photos.

The Legacy of Mayor Anthony Williams

The Legacy of Mayor Anthony Williams
Author: Ray Crawford
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2020-01-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1498587933

The Legacy of Mayor Anthony Williams: Economic Development in the Federal City examines the leadership of former Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams during his tenure in the office from 1998 to 2006. The first purpose of this book is to provide an analytical tool for effective mayoral leadership that will be appropriate for the unique characteristics of Washington, DC, which may also be applicable to other jurisdictions that have similar issues. The second purpose is to address the gap in academic analysis with a specific focus on political leadership at the mayoral level. This book, therefore, proffers the hypothesis that the performance of a scientific study with a specific focus on the issue of mayoral leadership within Washington, DC, will increase the probability of effective mayoral leadership in the future.

How America Lost Its Mind

How America Lost Its Mind
Author: Thomas E. Patterson
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2019-10-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0806165685

Americans are losing touch with reality. On virtually every issue, from climate change to immigration, tens of millions of Americans have opinions and beliefs wildly at odds with fact, rendering them unable to think sensibly about politics. In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson explains the rise of a world of “alternative facts” and the slow-motion cultural and political calamity unfolding around us. We don’t have to search far for the forces that are misleading us and tearing us apart: politicians for whom division is a strategy; talk show hosts who have made an industry of outrage; news outlets that wield conflict as a marketing tool; and partisan organizations and foreign agents who spew disinformation to advance a cause, make a buck, or simply amuse themselves. The consequences are severe. How America Lost Its Mind maps a political landscape convulsed with distrust, gridlock, brinksmanship, petty feuding, and deceptive messaging. As dire as this picture is, and as unlikely as immediate relief might be, Patterson sees a way forward and underscores its urgency. A call to action, his book encourages us to wrest institutional power from ideologues and disruptors and entrust it to sensible citizens and leaders, to restore our commitment to mutual tolerance and restraint, to cleanse the Internet of fake news and disinformation, and to demand a steady supply of trustworthy and relevant information from our news sources. As philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote decades ago, the rise of demagogues is abetted by “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson makes a passionate case for fully and fiercely engaging on the side of truth and mutual respect in our present arms race between fact and fake, unity and division, civility and incivility.