The Roots of American Exceptionalism, Charles Lockhart, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003, pp. 221.

In The Roots of American Exceptionalism: Institutions, Culture and Policies, Charles Lockhart has written a short book on a big topic that is sure to stimulate readers seeking to understand how America's unique political inheritance influences the world's only hyperpower. The book rests upon a premise that is simple to state, but much more complex to think through, namely that a nation's history shapes its political culture, which is both reflected and reinforced by institutional structures, and which then creates governance capacities that either facilitate or constrain potential policy outcomes.

Mexico's Pivotal Democratic Election. Candidates, Voters, and the Presidential Campaign of 2000, Jorge I. Domínguez and Chappell Lawson, eds., Stanford and La Jolla: Stanford University Press-Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 2004, pp. xxiv, 363.

This book reads almost like the dissection of one single day: July 2, 2000, when Vicente Fox was elected president of Mexico. As an opposition candidate, Fox defeated the PRI, the party that had been in power for the longest period in modern world history. The title of this book is thus aptly chosen, because that day Mexican politics changed forever. It captures the uniqueness of that moment. Even if Fox's victory is understandable in retrospect, most analysts could not predict it. Indeed, as the events were unfolding, not even Fox himself was certain about the outcome. Francisco Labastida, PRI's candidate, was, until the last moment, certain he would win.

The 1999–2000 Elections in Russia: Their Impact and Legacy, Vicki L. Hesli and William M. Reisinger, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 301.

In many respects, the title of this volume understates the importance of its contribution to our understanding of the political dynamics of post-Soviet Russia. By conducting a thorough autopsy of the pivotal 1999 parliamentary and 2000 presidential elections, the contributors to The 1999–2000 Elections in Russia: Their Impact and Legacy do indeed say a great deal about the state of Russian electoral politics and political parties at the turn of the century. At the same time, they also provide an excellent overview of the first decade of reform in Russia, through the lens of electoral politics, and make some important conceptual linkages to the broader issues of democratization, institutional reform and public opinion.

Quel avenir pour Israël? Entretien avec Yves Charles Zarka, Jeffrey Andrew Barash et Elhanan Yakira, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 2001, 362 p.

Depuis l'éclatement de la deuxième Intifada, en septembre 2000, l'échec du processus de paix israélo-palestinien n'est plus une potentialité mais un fait. Comment sortir de cette impasse et réamorcer un dialogue entre Israéliens et Palestiniens? La question est d'autant plus actuelle que la stabilité au Moyen-Orient dépend en grande partie de la résolution du conflit israélo-arabe. Dans cet ouvrage, Shlomo Ben-Ami, ancien ministre israélien des affaires étrangères, réfléchit à l'échec des négociations et aux contours de toute solution future. Car, en dépit de son pessimisme actuel, M. Ben-Ami tranche en faveur de la paix. La solution du conflit israélo-palestinien ne peut, selon lui, être que politique.

The Horn of Africa as Common Homeland: The State and Self-Determination in the Era of Heightened Globalization, Leenco Lata, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2004, pp. xi, 219.

The author of this book describes himself as a political activist who earned his credentials to write about self-determination in the Horn of Africa largely through his experiences in helping to form the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) in Ethiopia in the 1970s. He also draws on two decades of political activities, work and travel throughout the entire region. The result is a text that is rich in “lived experiences.” Yet the author is a scholar as much as he is an activist and keen observer of events. Drawing on different theoretical perspectives and exploring alternative theories of state, nation, self-determination and democracy, Lata has produced a coherent and nuanced analysis of current state-building processes in the Horn of Africa.

Qu'allons-nous faire des pauvres?, Campbell, Bonnie (sous la direction de), Paris : Éditions l'Harmattan, 2005.

L'ouvrage collectif dirigé par Bonnie Campbell, sous-titré “ réformes institutionnelles et espaces politiques ou les pièges de la gouvernance pour les pauvres ” aborde des thèmes fondamentaux : la mise en forme du politique dans les stratégies de lutte contre la pauvreté, la manière dont il est déployé et se structure et son impact sur les espaces politiques et la pauvreté. Il jette un regard novateur sur les processus d'ancrage et de légitimation liés à la reconfiguration du politique dans le cadre des nouvelles stratégies de lutte contre la pauvreté. Contenant plusieurs études de cas sur l'Afrique et l'Amérique latine, le livre soulève des problématiques vastes et fécondes dont la portée devrait intéresser des chercheurs de différentes disciplines et les praticiens du développement international. Basé sur une approche holistique, articulant le politique, l'économique et le social, l'ouvrage permet de saisir la logique des dynamiques en cours dans les pays concernés, logique étrangement similaire à celle de nos sociétés, et c'est pourquoi il nous interpelle tous. Aussi à la question “ qu'allons-nous faire des pauvres ”, fait écho une question analogue : “ qu'allons-nous faire de nos pauvres ?”. Cet ouvrage collectif, à la fois théorique et pratique, est riche par le questionnement qu'il provoque, bien qu'il soit construit avec modestie et solidité.

The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Terence Ball and Richard Bellamy, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. xi, 754.

This volume is the last of the Cambridge Histories of Political Thought. The editors call the series “monumental” and they are correct. Cambridge has provided a comprehensive academic reference of the highest quality. The editors have assembled 29 authors who have distinguished careers in political thought. The overall quality of their contributions is excellent, just as the hand of the editors is found in the articles without interfering. Overall this is a splendid reference.

The Politics of Liberty in England and Revolutionary America, Lee Ward, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. x, 459.

This book is a valuable contribution to scholarship on seventeenth and eighteenth century political thought. It will be of particular interest to those who study theories of natural rights, the relationship between religion and politics, constitutionalism and the American founding. The most commendable quality of Ward's book is its even-handedness. Methodologically, Ward combines a detailed reading of important texts with continuous attention to context, engaging the literature distinctive to both approaches. Interpretively, he treats every author he discusses with generosity, revealing what is most significant and compelling about each of them. Politically, the story he tells corrects narratives that overemphasize the role of either liberalism or republicanism in Anglo-American thought. He follows both traditions as they oppose divine right theory together as rival elements of “radical Whig” thinking, collaborate in the defence of natural liberty, and combine to form the basis of the American regime.

Idéologies, idéal démocratique et régimes politiques, Terence BalI, Richard Dagger, Jean Des Lauriers et Pascal St-Pierre, Saint-Laurent : ERPI, 2005, 536 p.

En mars 2000, nous donnions dans cette revue le compte rendu de la troisième édition américaine de l'ouvrage de BalI et Dagger dont nous disions le plus grand bien. Cinq ans plus tard, nous présentons la version québécoise de cet ouvrage par Jean Des Lauriers. Le manuel de BalI et Dagger a été conçu pour le premier cycle de l'enseignement universitaire américain; l'adaptation qu'en a faite Des Lauriers est donc utilisable aux niveaux collégial et universitaire de notre système scolaire.

Democracy Defended, Gerry Mackie, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. xvi, 483.

Democracy Defended is a sustained assault on an influential figure in contemporary political science: William Riker, oft-cited founder of the “positive political theory” approach, the emperors of which may or may not be far more shabbily dressed than they care to admit. Mackie's effort is impressive, and will delight those who are already suspicious of Riker's “Rochester School,” but the book deserves serious engagement by those working within this analytic tradition. In the same spirit as Donald Green and Ian Shapiro's Pathologies of Rational Choice (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), Mackie calls attention to a glaring gap between an elegant theory and the world it purports to explain—supposing, of course, that rational choice is best understood as an explanatory approach rather than a normative enterprise (it could be both).

Kant's Critique of Hobbes, Howard Williams, Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press, 2003, pp. 244.

Howard Williams argues that Immanuel Kant's (1724–1804) international political theory is a significant critique of Thomas Hobbes'(1588–1679) theory of the sovereign state. Kant's critique is rooted in a conviction that reform, rather than revolution, is the only rationally defensible response to an empirically defective sovereign. In other words, Kant reforms rather than jettisons altogether Hobbes' account of the sovereign state. Rather than absolute internal authority and an untamed gladiator externally, Kant's sovereign state advances gradually towards popular sovereignty and global legality. Williams concludes, “Kant's critique of Hobbes presents the most appropriate account of political sovereignty for today” (232).

Globalization, Technology, and Philosophy, David Tabachnick and Toivo Koivukoski, eds., Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004, pp. vi, 251.

Technology is an underlying cause, probably the chief underlying cause, of the complex phenomenon of globalization. That much is virtually axiomatic among globalization theorists and social scientists generally. From at least early modernity to the present, global flows of people, commodities, ideas and information have expanded, and sped up. In recent times, trans-border social networks and international governance have become increasingly important. Political decision making is increasingly directed at management of the planet as a whole; the world of politics is increasingly Earth. All of these aspects of globalization (and others besides) depend on the development and deployment of technologies, and on the development and deployment of technoscientific knowledge.

Turbulence and New Directions in Global Political Economy, James Busumtwi-Sam and Laurent Dobuzinskis, eds., Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2003, pp. xiv, 234.

Few would argue with the observation that the world economy today presents a more changeable, unpredictable and unrecognizable environment than a mere decade ago. In the mid-1990s, at the heyday of the so-called “Washington Consensus,” neoliberal market orthodoxy appeared both predictably and triumphantly at global, regional and national levels: the World Trade Organization had emerged with great fanfare to ostensibly establish a new rules-based system for international trade; the North American Free Trade Agreement had been enacted to liberalize trade and investment across the continent; while the Maastricht Treaty had begun to exert fiscal constraint on the national policy priorities of European Union member states. Today's global political-economic setting is by contrast ideologically unsettled, destabilized by a post-Cold War, post-Seattle, and post-September 11 agitation, and beset by a host of new actors, emerging new power alignments and new capabilities. It is this state of turbulence and flux that is captured in this book, the varied contributions of which intelligently grapple with the challenges such unrest poses for practitioners and academic observers alike.

Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights, Carol C. Gould, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 276.

Carol C. Gould, professor of Philosophy and Government and director of the Center for Global Ethics at George Mason University, has undoubtedly gained recognition as one of the most prolific scholars in the burgeoning literature on democracy and human rights in the contemporary contexts of globalization. This latest book is a worthy successor to her earlier book, the highly acclaimed Rethinking Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), in which the author articulated a distinctive and innovative approach that placed the conception of human rights at the core of democratic theory. With this book, Gould takes the next giant step in an evolving debate by presenting colleagues and students with another instance of a well-integrated and intellectually sophisticated analysis. She deserves to be congratulated for the vein of thought she has been examining.

Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics, Doris Buss and Didi Herman, Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003, pp. xxxvii, 197.

When read against the backdrop of President George W. Bush's successful re-election—a victory achieved, evidently, with support from significant numbers of conservative Christian voters—this book provides important observations, and perhaps to some readers, ominous warnings about the strategies, ideology and policies of conservative Christian political activists in general and the American contingent in particular. That the Christian Right (CR) has taken to the international arena in ever-increasing numbers in recent years may come as a surprise for some. Indeed, until quite recently—particularly after the American presidential elections of 1996—many observers concluded that the bulk of activist CR organizations were a) waning in political influence, and b) concentrating what remained of their energies upon the domestic front to carry on the battle against those ubiquitous domestic targets: liberalism and secular-humanism.

Im Weltinnenraum des Kapitals, Peter Sloterdijk., Frankfurt: M., Suhrkamp, 2005, 415 pagesComme pour tous ces ouvrages précédents, cet essai de Sloterdijk sera bientôt traduit dans plusieurs langues, notamment en français. Toutes les citations tirées de l'œuvre sont notre traduction libre..

L'essayiste et philosophe allemand, Peter Sloterdijk, qui s'est employé depuis quelques années à penser l'histoire humaine comme une histoire morphologique (le projet des Sphères), propose dans Im Weltinnenraum des Kapitals—Dans le monde intérieur du Capital—une philosophie de la globalisation qui emprunte les traits du Grand Récit de notre relation au globe.