Monday 7 July 2014

Networked Politics - A Must Read Book

The thought of network has emerged as Associate in Nursing intellectual centerpiece for our era. Network analysis conjointly occupies a growing place in several of the social sciences. In negotiation, however, network has too usually remained a image instead of a robust theoretical perspective. In Networked Politics, a team of political scientists investigates networks in necessary sectors of negotiation, as well as human rights, security agreements, terrorist and criminal teams, international difference, and governance of the net. They treat networks as either structures that form behavior or necessary collective actors. In their hands, acquainted ideas, like structure, power, and governance, area unit awarded new that means.

Networked Politics - Agency, Power, and Governance is a book edited by Miles Kahler. A lot of great authors and subject matter specialist form the world’s top universities have contributed to this book. This book is published by Cornell University Press. This is an extremely useful book on networks and politics. The book explores networks in action. It's not possible describe the soul of this book in a blog post. So you must read this book for laying out the political implications of network structures.

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Tactical Voting

In voting systems, tactical voting (or strategic voting or sophisticated voting or insincere voting) occurs, in elections with more than two candidates, when a voter supports a candidate other than his or her sincere preference in order to prevent an undesirable outcome.

It has been shown by the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem that, if a voting method for choosing one of several options is completely strategy-free, then it must be either dictatorial or nondeterministic (that is, might not select the same outcome every time it is applied to the same set of voter preferences). For instance, the random ballot voting method(Networked Politics), which randomly selects the ballot of a single voter and uses this to determine the outcome, is strategy-free, but may result in different choices being selected if applied multiple times to the same set of ballots.

For example, in a simple plurality election, a voter might sometimes gain a "better" outcome by voting for a less preferred but more generally popular candidate.

However, the type of tactical voting and the extent to which it affects the character of the campaign and the results of the election vary dramatically from one voting system to another.

Friday 17 August 2012

Policy Network

Policy Network is a London-based centre-left international think tank. It is leading platform for long-term strategic thinking, policymaking and international best practice, influencing policy debates in the UK, Europe and internationally. Its President is former UK First Secretary of State and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and its Chair is Roger Liddle, former Special Adviser on European matters to Tony Blair. Olaf Cramme is Director and Patrick Diamond is Senior Research Fellow.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Networked politics: agency, power, and governance

The concept of network has emerged as an intellectual centerpiece for our era. Network analysis also occupies a growing place in many of the social sciences. In international relations, however, network has too often remained a metaphor rather than a powerful theoretical perspective. In Networked Politics, a team of political scientists investigates networks in important sectors of international relations, including human rights, security agreements, terrorist and criminal groups, international inequality, and governance of the Internet. They treat networks as either structures that shape behavior or important collective actors. In their hands, familiar concepts, such as structure, power, and governance, are awarded new meaning. Book jacket.

Monday 11 July 2011

New Politics Network

The New Politics Network was an independent political and campaigning think tank in the United Kingdom, concerned with democratic renewal and popular participation in politics. It was founded as the successor to Democratic Left in 1999, and merged with Charter 88 to form Unlock Democracy in 2007.

Origin

The NPN was established in December 1999 following the winding up of Democratic Left, the legal successor organisation to the former Communist Party of Great Britain.Its first director was Nina Temple. Democratic Left had briefly become the New Times Network, publishing a magazine, New Times, until the summer of 1999, before it became the NPN.


Activities

The NPN had around 200-250 members. The NPN worked with a wide range of groups and individuals to provide a forum to look at emerging ideas in society. Its stated goal was to provide an independent and innovative debate on the future of politics. With the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust it funded the tactical voting website Tacticalvoter.net during the 2001 general election, although it was not involved with the 2005 campaign of the same name.

While it was predicted by Nick Cohen in the New Statesman in 2000 that NPN would merge with Make Votes Count and Charter 88, Nina Temple among others attempted to steer the organisation back towards its democratic socialist roots at the 2003 AGM. If this had been successful, the organisation may well have ended up as part of the Compass pressure group.

The NPN owned an office block in Islington, north London, a property company called Rodell, and an office in the Midlands.


Merger

In November 2007 the NPN, by then directed by Peter Facey, merged with Charter 88 to form a new campaigning group, Unlock Democracy. The contribution of NPN to this merger was substantially financial, due to the dire situation in which Charter 88 had found itself. The NPN strapline "connecting people and politics" was however, retained.