New Books in Political Science

In 1974 the government of Jordan established a new ministry to oversee a nationwide scheme to buy and distribute subsidized flour and regulate bakeries. The scheme sets terms for the politics that are the subject of a new book: States of Subsistence: The Politics of Bread in Contemporary Jordan (Stanford University Press, 2022). Rest assured, this is no dull account of state welfare that posits and tests for a two-dimensional relationship between the delivery of a staple food and public acquiescence to authoritarian rule. Far from it! To explain these politics, José Ciro Martínez goes to work baking, and taking the reader through kitchens, byways and marketplaces. Via descriptions of bakers and regulators, and interviews with consumers and policymakers, he offers a sophisticated account of how the state meets the stomach in Jordan, and how both citizens and bureaucracy are changed through this intra-action.States of Subsistence was the winner of the 2023 Roger Owen Book Award, sponsored by the Middle East Studies Association, and singled out for an honourable mention by the 2023 Charles Taylor Book Award committee of the American Political Science Association’s Interpretive Methodologies and Methods Group.If you like this episode of New Books in Interpretive Political and Social Science then you might also be interested in Mona El Ghobashy on Bread and Freedom: Egypt’s Revolutionary Situation, or Gerard McCarthy on Outsourcing the Polity: Non-state Welfare, Inequality and Resistance in Myanmar.José’s book recommendations are: Teo Ballvé, The Frontier Effect: State Formation and Violence in Colombia Lauren Berlant, On the Inconvenience of Other People Hisham Matar, My Friends Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

The United States integrated counterterrorism mandates into its aid flows in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the early years of the global war on terror. Some two decades later, this securitized model of aid has become normalized across donor intervention in Palestine. Elastic Empire: Refashioning War Through Aid in Palestine (Stanford UP, 2023) traces how foreign aid, on which much of the Palestinian population is dependent, has multiplied the sites and means through which Palestinian life is regulated, surveilled, and policed—this book tells the story of how aid has also become war.Drawing on extensive research conducted in Palestine, Elastic Empire offers a novel accounting of the US security state. The US war chronicled here is not one of tanks, grenades, and guns, but a quieter one waged through the interlacing of aid and law. It emerges in the infrastructures of daily life—in a greenhouse and library, in the collection of personal information and mapping of land plots, in the halls of municipal councils and in local elections—and indelibly transfigures lives. Situated in a landscape where the lines between humanitarianism and the global war on terror are increasingly blurred, Elastic Empire reveals the shape-shifting nature of contemporary imperial formations, their realignments and reformulations, their haunted sites, and their obscured but intimate forms.Lisa Bhungalia is Assistant Professor of Geography at Kent State University. Her new position (as of fall 2024) will be Assistant Professor of Geography and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Dr. Liliana Doganova discusses how discounting shapes our view of the future in business and policy. She explores the history of discounting in forestry, its impact on investment decisions, and the challenges it presents in the bio-pharmaceutical industry. The podcast highlights the need for a socio-political understanding of discounting and its implications for decision-making.

Author M. Steven Fish discusses defeating authoritarianism, rebuilding Democrats' appeal, dominance in political leadership, and challenges to strengthen democracy in 'Comeback: Routing Trumpism, Reclaiming the Nation, and Restoring Democracy's Edge'.

Dr. Yuval Levin discusses the unifying power of the Constitution in America, exploring historical figures like James Madison and Woodrow Wilson. Topics include balancing majority rule and minority rights, Woodrow Wilson's progressive vision, and the evolution of American democracy. The podcast also touches on college campus protests, the influence of the Constitution on collective action, and the importance of unity in a diverse society.

Former State Department expert, Charles Blaha, discusses Biden's suspension of arms transfers to Israel, US laws and policies on weapons transfers, protests' impact, and overall US posture on arms transfers to Israel.

Shelley X. Liu discusses how rebel victories in civil wars impact post-war state-building efforts, emphasizing the importance of resource allocation for development and security. The podcast delves into the dynamics of rebel-civilian ties and governing institutions, showcasing case studies from Zimbabwe and Liberia. Liu's research combines interviews, data analysis, and comparative studies to examine the complexities of post-war governance and power consolidation.

Pamela Aronson and Matthew R. Fleming discuss how electoral politics and #MeToo are reshaping gender relations. They explore resistance to gender norms, backlash against changes, and the empowerment of women in politics. The podcast highlights the evolving dynamics of gender relations, social battles of power, Michigan politics, extensive data research, diverse perspectives on the gender revolution, reshaping feminist consciousness post-Women's March, voter perceptions, and empowering women in politics.

How do election campaigns in South Korea look like? Why have satellite parties become an important instrument of power politics? What do the election results mean for the Yoon government’s ability to implement its policy agenda? In April 2024, South Koreans went to the polls to elect a new parliament but many regarded the elections also as a referendum on President Yoon Suk-yeol and opposition leader Lee Jae-myung. In this episode, Outi Luova talks to Sabine Burghart about her observations during the election campaign in Seoul and Jeonju, the government’s controversial medical reform plans, new political actors and gender differences in voting behavior.Sabine Burghart is University Lecturer and Academic Director of the Master’s Degree Programme in East Asian Studies at the Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS), University of Turku, Finland.The Nordic Asia Podcast is a collaboration sharing expertise on Asia across the Nordic region, brought to you by the following academic partners: Asia Centre, University of Tartu (Estonia), Asian studies, University of Helsinki (Finland), Asianettverket, University of Oslo (Norway), Centre for Asian Studies, Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Centre for East Asian Studies, University of Turku (Finland) and Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University (Sweden). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Even as most contemporary states look to history in order to legitimize their existence in some way or other, the past – and narrations of it – hold particular weight in China. This is not a new phenomenon, for which pasts to elevate and which to suppress has long been a concern for both intellectuals and those seeking to rule the states and empires which have occupied the space now forming the People’s Republic of China.Today’s Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping is no exception to this, and indeed is making unusually strenuous efforts to circumscribe an acceptable vision of the past. Yet, as Ian Johnson’s beautifully put together and captivatingly written new book Sparks: China's Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future (Oxford UP, 2023) shows, no small number of scholars, film-makers, artists, writers and researchers continue to work to ensure that less convenient histories endure into the future. Based on years of research and experience, this is a powerful – and ultimately cautiously hopeful – book about the possibility for ordinary people to keep hold of often-painful but vitally important pasts. Working to make this more likely, Ian Johnson also heads the China Unofficial Archives project.Ed Pulford is an Anthropologist and Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His research focuses on friendships and histories between the Chinese, Korean and Russian worlds, and socialism and empire in Eurasia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science