Why autocratic leaders have adopted gender-equality reforms as a way to legitimize their rule

Authoritarian governments are often seen as attacking gender equality. Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orban, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made well-publicized critiques of feminism. But, as Elin Bjarnegard and Paer Zetterberg show in this book, autocratic regimes are also actively adopting gender-equality reforms, surpassing some democracies in their embrace of such policies. Why have leaders of countries known for violating human rights become unlikely champions of gender equality? Bjarnegard and Zetterberg argue that gender serves as a versatile tool for autocrats seeking to legitimize their rule, deflecting attention from authoritarian practices by promoting policies that seem liberal and even democratic. They call this strategy of political misdirection autocratic genderwashing.

Drawing on data from authoritarian governments in countries including Rwanda, Nicaragua, Singapore, and Uganda, Bjarnegard and Zetterberg show how gender equality policies interact with noncoercive authoritarian strategies to claim legitimacy for autocratic rule. They describe autocratic genderwashing as political theater, shining a spotlight on specific reforms and accomplishments-domestic violence legislation, increased numbers of women in parliament, the creation of women's policy agencies-while leaving authoritarian practices in the dark. Considering the question of whether autocratic genderwashing is successful as a legitimation strategy, Bjarnegard and Zetterberg find that it is more convincing to international audiences than to domestic ones.

This book articulates and defends a novel view about fundamental reality, an alternative to the traditional opposition between monism and pluralism. Collective allism is the view that what's metaphysically fundamental is neither the universe as a whole nor some fragments thereof, but the plurality of all entities, i.e. all entities taken collectively. Using resources from plural logic, the book systematically develops the view and argues that considerations about mereological infinitism, emergence, natural laws, and relations give it an edge over monism and pluralism. This book is therefore of great interest to both scientists and philosophers of science.

Music and Sound in Transpacific East Asia establishes transpacific circulation as a framework to understand the movement of music, sound, media, objects, texts, and people across East Asia and its diasporas. This collection of fourteen essays details a wealth of musical and sonic formations that emerged from neglected histories of transpacific circulations - from Cantonese opera in late-nineteenth-century San Francisco and Japanese tango musicians in 1930s Shanghai to church bells constructed from U.S. military oxygen tanks in post-Korean War South Korea. The essays explore such locations as transforming spaces of performance and sites of cultural negotiation, networked through migration, empire, war, and religion. Drawing from post/colonial history, anthropology, sound studies, memory studies, deaf studies, historical linguistics, and critical area studies, this collection offers new perspectives that challenge nation-, land-, and genre-based premises of musical authenticity.

This open access book examines the subject of 'contentious governance', a situation in which lower-level governments collaborate with activists to contest policies implemented by other governmental actors. Drawing from three case studies, it introduces the concept and relevance of 'contentious governance', before assessing how it works in action. The book demonstrates that the processes of 'contentious governance' are inherently political and riddled with power struggles, as those involved vie over the interpretation of public interest. As instances of 'contentious governance' become increasingly common, it also proposes a framework through which to better understand its complexities. In doing so, it provides fresh perspectives on numerous classical issues, including the political nature of policy, power dynamics, governance processes, government-citizen relations, and policy conflicts.

This book aims to explore and promote greening strategies to enhance urban resilience and health. It is based on the results of the "Greenwork" project funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities. This book provides an overview of current measures, tools, and innovative approaches to greening the built environment, addressing challenges such as climate change, urbanization, and environmental health.

The content is divided into three main sections: 1. Greening Strategies for Climate Risk Management: This section covers nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban resilience against natural and human-made hazards, multi-hazard investigations, and the impact of green solutions on urban well-being and eco-anxiety. 2. Interventions at the Urban Scale: This section focuses on urban green spaces, recreational areas, pocket gardens, the role of greenery in historic centers, and the effects of urban microclimate on health. 3. Interventions at the Building Scale: This section discusses green roofs, green facades, pocket gardens, and the influence of indoor greenery on microclimate and user well-being.

Why the underrepresentation of the working class in political office is an inevitable side effect of electoral democracy itself

Why do so few working-class people go on to hold elected office? In the average democracy, working-class jobs make up about seventy percent of occupations, but only two percent of national legislators come from working-class job. In Keeping Workers Off the Ballot, Nicholas Carnes and Noam Lupu show that this disparity is not because working-class people are less appealing to voters, less interested in running, or less qualified. And the problem isn't limited to certain countries, campaign finance regimes, or electoral systems. Carnes and Lupu argue that it is the nature of elections themselves that keep workers out our ballots and out of office.

Carnes and Lupu point to two inherent features of elections that discourage working-class candidates. Running for office naturally involves taking on significant personal burdens-giving up time, energy, and certainty about the future-that are prohibitive to people in such lower-wage, labor-intensive, and more precarious occupations as manual laborer, retail clerk, and home health aide. Party gatekeepers in turn have strategic incentives to favor potential candidates who can more easily meet the demands of running, and as a result, they pass over qualified working-class people. Carnes and Lupu argue that workers won't have a seat at the table in our political system unless parties form institutionalized partnerships with strong worker organizations or democracies embrace alternative forms of leadership selection that directly harness the perspectives of ordinary citizens.

This open access book presents an interdisciplinary perspective on the study of well-being at work. Written by experts from various disciplines, it integrates organizational behavior, sociology, economics, economic history, and entrepreneurship to probe two central themes: the causes and consequences of work meaningfulness and work motivations, and their implications for workers and organizations. It comprehensively explores why people find meaning in their work, what motivates them to work, and how this perception shapes individual, organizational, and economic outcomes. The respective chapters investigate how these central topics manifest in various contexts, from psychological and organizational frameworks to the impact of economic theories and technological change, offering new perspectives on the interplay between work, individual fulfillment, and societal development.

The edited volume promises to be a distinctive contribution to the field, sharing provocative insights and summaries of the state-of-the-art in the growing body of literature on meaningful work and work orientations, raising pivotal questions and providing informed answers that will shape future studies and practices.

Offers a new theory of the minority as a political form and shows how majoritarian projects are built through its appropriation.

Around the world, national majorities are telling themselves a potent story: that they are the ones in danger. In the United States and Serbia, Christian and white nationalists warn of "replacement." In Turkey and Pakistan, Muslim nationalists cast religious "others" as existential threats. In India, Hindu nationalists stoke fears that Hindus are becoming minorities in "their own" land. These movements, and the migration and citizenship policies that accompany them, are not aberrations, but rather expressions of a logic embedded in the modern nation-state-a logic that turns populations into numbers, numbers into votes, and difference into enmity.

In The People, in Parts, anthropologist Natasha S. Raheja homes in on a paradox visible along the India-Pakistan border. When Hindus cross into India from Pakistan seeking refuge, they are admitted as minorities in need of protection. Yet in India, their welcome into the putative majority is selective and conditional. How does majority-minority status shift by crossing a border? Drawing on long-term research in the Thar Desert region, Raheja argues that this bureaucratic confusion is political machinery. Where liberal democracy treats the minority as a shifting, procedural category, nation-state governance fixes it as a substantive identity. The suffering of minoritized populations becomes raw material for majoritarian projects, converted into demographic justification, electoral arithmetic, and nationalist grievance. The minority form, in other words, does majoritarian work.

The People, in Parts offers not only a searing diagnosis of minority-majority politics and the governance of migration but a reframing: the problem is not simply about who belongs and who does not, but how nationalist belonging crosses state borders, pointing to strains within liberal democracy and the nation-state order.

On December 29, 1911, the Mongols seceded from the Manchu Empire, proclaimed their independence, and elevated Bogdo Jebtsundamba Khutuktu as the Emperor of Mongolia, ending 220 years of Manchu rule. The Mongols have almost forgotten at present the Eighth Bogdo Jebtsundamba Khutuktu who initiated, organized and led that historical event. He was vehemently decried and was given various names such as 'the feudal' and 'the blind' during Mongolia's recent socialist past. He was even depicted until his death as a sworn enemy of Mongolia's independence. An attempt was made in this work to show, as objectively as possible and on the basis of archival sources, the contribution of the Eighth Bogdo Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, Mongolia's last Emperor to the struggle for Mongolia's independence, the commencement and culmination of Mongolia's national revolution of 1911, the relationship between the Bogdo khaan and the People's Government, the death of the Bogdo khaan and the attempts to identify his reincarnation and the confiscation of Bogdo's properties. We should never forget that the Bogdo khaan was the leader of the Mongols' religion, an Emperor who wielded power in both the state and church since 1911, an extraordinary leader and a father of Mongolia's national revolution. This work will interest historians of Asia, Mongolia, Russia and, the Soviet Union, and those tracing the journey from empire to nation.

This book employs deductive and inductive reasoning within traditional civil law normative analysis, supplemented by legal historical sociology research methods, to precisely trace the developmental trajectory and societal operational patterns of the law of obligations. Based on this, it derives both the intrinsic and extrinsic systems of the General Provisions on Obligations. By elucidating the contextual significance and systemic functions of the General Principles of Obligations, this monograph achieves theoretical integration between the Contract Law and Tort Law sections of the Chinese Civil Code, thereby enhancing the code's systemic efficacy. From historical, systemic, and functional perspectives, it comprehensively analyzes the legislative and academic origins of the General Principles, their internal and external frameworks, and their roles in value coordination and normative unification. It simultaneously demonstrates how internal system values achieve coherent integration, how external system efficacy is maximized, and the mediating role of flexible system theory in reconciling conflicts between the two. Furthermore, adopting a micro-level perspective, the book explores the normative functions of the General Principles of Obligations as manifested in doctrines such as unified restitution claims, joint and several liability, and competing claims on a debt. This jurisprudential monograph is intended for civil law scholars worldwide.

Why supporting big government, trade barriers, and unchecked executive power is still conservative-and why MAGA's worldview is far more coherent than its critics think

When Donald Trump surged to the lead in the 2015 fight for the GOP presidential nomination, bewildered political watchers struggled to understand why, because his policy positions were often at odds with what had been Republican orthodoxy since the days of Ronald Reagan. The Right Way reveals what these political observers missed, presenting a multidimensional understanding of the conservative worldview that explains why Trump has succeeded in both building up and tearing down what conservatives have traditionally embraced.

Marc Hetherington, Andrew Engelhardt, and Jonathan Weiler argue for a reimagining of conservatism that lends clarity to partisan paradoxes that otherwise seem inconsistent with the brand of conservatism most of us grew up with. Drawing on in-depth surveys from across America, they show how conservative voters rely on their general view of the world and human nature more broadly to understand the political world around them. Rather than preferences for limited government, conservative outlooks and dispositions explain why ordinary people who identify as conservatives vote the way they do on issues ranging from racial and gender equality to LGBTQ rights, immigration, redistribution, and foreign policy. They also tackle puzzles such as the willingness of today's conservatives to support politicians who bend or even break norms and rules that have been central to democratic functioning throughout American history.

Essential reading for polarized times, The Right Way demonstrates that while the politics of the moment may be in flux, worldviews about authority, tradition, community, and personal responsibility consistently shape how conservative voters evaluate public policies and choose their leaders.

This volume offers an in-depth examination of Hallyu (the Korean Wave), foregrounding its significance as a critical site for cultural, theoretical, and decolonial inquiry. With the emergence of globally recognized phenomena such as BTS and Squid Game, Hallyu has transitioned from a fan-based subculture in Asia to a global cultural phenomenon. This transformation necessitates a reevaluation of the phenomenon and its significance.

The volume is divided into three main parts-historicizing, theorizing, and decolonizing-each offering distinct yet interconnected approaches to interpreting Hallyu. By bringing together historical analysis, theoretical innovation, and decolonial critique, this volume demonstrates that Hallyu is a dynamic framework for understanding the shifting dynamics of global culture in the twenty-first century.

Advancement in Medical and Wellness Tourism, Volume 2 delves into how innovation and human creativity are reshaping the way of travel for health care. This book explains how technology, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit are transforming the way people seek wellness beyond borders. The edited book highlights new opportunities, challenges, and solutions shaping the medical tourism industry today.

This volume offers a comprehensive exploration of medical tourism, covering evolving consumer behavior, digital transformation, sustainability, and emerging technologies like AI and robotics. It brings together global perspectives on healthcare, entrepreneurship, and patient experience, shaping the industry across diverse cultural and economic contexts.

This is the first English-language book to document the fate of thousands of Indonesians who were overseas in 1965 when a military regime came to power in their homeland. Caught up in the politics of the Cold War, many hundreds who were unwilling to support the regime were rendered stateless, unable to return to Indonesia, and trapped in exile. While a pogrom was conducted against the Indonesian Communist Party and other opponents of the military regime in Indonesia, exiles strived to maintain a critical left-wing opposition to the Suharto military regime while scattered abroad. By analysing their experiences, looking in depth at the situation of exiles in China, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Burma and the Netherlands, this account traces their collective fate as victims -- and survivors -- of the Suharto regime and the Cold War. This study contributes to the re-interpretation of Indonesia's past, to a more nuanced understanding of the Cold War's impact in Asia, and to the field of diasporic and exilic studies.

A close-up examination of the roots of congressional politics in nominations for the House of Representatives.

With most House seats all but guaranteed for one party in general elections, primary elections for party nominees often decide who goes to Congress. Yet primaries are notoriously difficult to study, due in part to both the variety of rules that govern them and the differences in the influence of local leaders. Based on wide-ranging evidence from field interviews to fundraising data to exit polls, Parties on the Ground overcomes these challenges to take readers under the hood for an in-depth look at the nomination process.

Although progressive reformers sought the adoption of primaries to empower voters' control over nominations, Parties on the Ground finds that most voters pay too little attention to make use of the opportunity. Instead, the most important actors are intense policy demanders-such as interest groups and activist organizations-who supply campaign resources to some candidates and deny them to others. These groups care most about securing an agent for their own interests and values; to this end, they put serious effort into vetting candidates and often coordinate among themselves or with local parties in support of their choices. At the same time, competition between establishment and insurgent groups can be high, especially in the Republican Party. Developing a nuanced account of House nominations in today's parties, Parties on the Ground offers a host of new insights into this understudied but significant piece of the puzzle of American politics.

This edited volume explores the complex dynamics of African women's political participation, focusing on the tension between numerical representation (quantity) and substantive, impactful political influence (quality). Chapters critically explore whether the growing numbers of women in these positions lead to substantive policy changes, improved governance, and the promotion of gender equity across different spheres of life. The volume looks at these issues through a multi-disciplinary lens, drawing on case studies from across the continent, different perspectives and extensive analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data.

By exploring the distinction between 'quantity' and 'quality' of political representation, the book provides insights for policymakers, scholars, activists, and civil society organisations on how to improve the effectiveness and impact of women's political participation in Africa. Furthermore, it contributes to the global discourse on gender equality and political representation, providing a comparative framework to understand how the African experience of female political engagement can inform broader conversations on women's roles in governance and significant spaces worldwide.

This book provides a systematic review of the content of children's rights protection in the international legal system and focuses on analysing China's compliance as a party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. By detailing a number of authoritative laws, including the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, the book systematically comprehends the specific application and practical effects of Chinese law in the protection of children's rights. In addition, this book focuses on the new challenges faced by children in the context of rapid economic and social development and explores in depth how China's legal system responds to the new demands for children's welfare and protection of their rights and interests. The importance of this book lies in the fact that it not only demonstrates the unique contribution of the Chinese legal system to the welfare and protection of children's rights and interests, but also highlights China's comprehensive approach to child protection. Through the implementation of the 'six-in-one' child protection framework of family, school, society, government, justice and the Internet, this book comprehensively covers the multidimensional environment in which children grow up, reflecting China's systematic and synergistic approach to child protection. The issues that this book intends to address include how to effectively protect children's rights in a rapidly changing socio-economic environment, and to provide practical guidance on child protection through comprehensive analyses of Chinese law and policy. Through comprehensive analyses of legal policies, practical cases and international experiences, this book presents readers with a three-dimensional and dynamic picture of child rights protection, which is of great academic value and practical significance. The target audience includes domestic and international legal scholars, policy makers, social workers, educators, as well as researchers and practitioners interested in child rights protection. This book not only provides an important reference for child protection work in China, but also provides valuable experience and guidance for research and practice in the field of child rights protection in countries around the world.

"This concise, highly readable volume explores America's enduring fascination with secession. Using case studies of successful and unsuccessful secessionist movements at the subnational level, the authors illustrate the complexities surrounding efforts by groups to achieve autonomy from a larger state. The comparison of cases is facilitated by a conceptual framework identifying various causes of these political movements. The discussion highlights the challenges facing would-be secessionists. Yet, the idea remains popular, and students of American history and politics will find this overview interesting and revealing."

-D. Munroe Eagles, Emeritus Professor, Political Science, University at Buffalo

"At a moment marked by polarization and renewed debates over secession and governance, this book is important and timely. Blending theory and history, the authors utilize case studies of American secession movements to demonstrate how questions of political power, culture, and economics intersect to shape our discourse. Full of insight and interesting stories, this study offers a compelling lens for understanding the past, present, and future of federalism in the United States."

-Christopher Cody, Assistant Professor, History, Hudson County Community College

Secession and Self-determination in the United States: Culture, Conchs, and Pop vs Soda examines a selection of sub-state movements to discern patterns in law and politics using secession to achieve policy goals. Highlighting Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, in the context of broader theories of sovereignty and self-determination at work in the rest of the world, the book postulates a process for achieving success within Constitutional limits.

How to avoid the trap of taking conflicts so personally

We're all imperfect. Good relationships require seeing each other through these imperfections-distinguishing what is signal, and what is noise. But sometimes we mistake noise for signal-or worse, signal for noise. And even when we get things right, the other person can be getting them wrong. In When Things Get Personal, Mark Schroeder shows that the better we can learn to tell the difference between signal and noise in our relationships, the better we can predict and avoid everyday misunderstandings that, if left unchecked, can lead to "discord"-fundamental, sometimes chronic failures to see eye to eye that lead us to take things personally that we shouldn't, to treat others in ways that they take personally, to abandon relationships that are worthwhile, and to stay in relationships that we'd be better off without.

Engagingly written, story-driven, and rich with powerful ideas and insights, When Things Get Personal addresses conflicts between colleagues, friends, and partners-and between parents and their children. Along the way, it explores the role discord plays in abusive relationships, in tragic coming-out stories, in political polarization, in small ongoing disagreements over things like how to load the dishwasher, and much more.

Discord gets us all into serious trouble. But unrecognized discord is even worse. When Things Get Personal teaches you to recognize the causes and symptoms of discord, allowing you to escape many of its worst effects. You will understand other people better-and maybe yourself, as well.

A sweeping account of China's global strategy from Mao to Xi, revealing its effort to court strategic partners, outmaneuver rivals, and reshape the global order on its own terms

Beijing wants global influence without global entanglements. That ambition is not new-it has been decades in the making. Rather than building rigid alliances, China has cultivated a vast and flexible web of partnerships spanning ideological divides. These ties-with Russia, North Korea, Global South states, and key US-aligned powers-are designed to avoid binding commitments, counter perceived containment, and expand Beijing's room for maneuver amid intensifying great power competition. No Constraints offers an unprecedented look at this approach, showing how China's global strategy is driven by a persistent fear of strategic encirclement and a relentless drive to break free of it.

In a study spanning China's Cold War alliances to its search for partners today, Patricia Kim reveals how Beijing has managed and mismanaged its most consequential relationships. She demonstrates how China's preference for autonomy, embrace of authoritarian regimes, and reliance on coercive tactics have often reinforced the very threats it seeks to diffuse. Its rejection of formal alliances raises hard questions about whether its partners would provide real support in a crisis. At the center of this story stands China's enduring struggle with the United States. Kim traces a recurring cycle of attempted grand bargains, coercive pressure, and recalibration as Beijing seeks to resolve strategic encirclement at its source.

Written by an internationally recognized expert on Chinese foreign policy, No Constraints offers a clear-eyed assessment of what China's global strategy means for a world in which alignments are fluid, order is contested, and global leadership is increasingly up for grabs. The book concludes with a warning that the greater danger lies less in a China bent on outright global domination, but one that destabilizes the existing order behind a veneer of global leadership.

A provocative look at America's compulsion to consume and our obsession's surprising-and strange-origins.

In a capitalist society, people sell their labor to purchase staples like food, shelter, and anxiety medication. That's the equation of everyday economic life that we've always been told is true. Except, is it really that simple anymore? No matter how unmaterialistic you may think you are, odds are that deep within is a drive to consume because it feels good: books you won't read, clothes you won't like and might wear even less, a replacement phone whose novelty runs out as quickly as its upgrade hits the market. But what drives this impulse?

In Growth Machines, Mark Joseph Stelzner shows how today's consumers are now programmed by a US economy intent on infinite growth to work for goods they've been convinced they need and conditioned to want. Stelzner establishes the gaps between economic thinking and economic reality, arguing that consumption is no longer just a reflection of needs, but rather, it reflects a need for transaction-in many cases, a treat we seek out because it feels good. We work not only to be able to consume the essentials for living, but also to consume for consumption's sake. Yet such consumption doesn't make us happier. Stelzner traces this strange nature of consumption to an environmental source: an economy that demands growth. To keep its economy pumping, the US must keep Americans consuming. This makes Stelzner's book an uncomfortable reflection on how we internalize our economy. To be an American is to consume; to consume is what makes America.