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Southeast Asia is a vast, populous and diverse region. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) promotes democracy and human rights as central to regional order and cooperation, but most members are not democratic and have poor or questionable human rights records. This book explores why Southeast Asian countries have collectively adopted the rhetoric of democracy and human rights, and argues that they are motivated by their concerns about external regional legitimacy. It analyses ASEAN's references to democracy and the reality of backsliding in several countries; examines the adoption of human rights rhetoric; and considers the implications for how we understand regional cooperation. The book is relevant for students and analysts who are interested in regionalism in Southeast Asia and elsewhere – particularly given growing global concerns about liberal democracy and the gaps between rhetoric and political realities.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.This book investigates the reasons behind the 2017 youthquake – which saw the highest rate of youth turnout in a quarter of a century, and an unprecedented gap in youth support for Labour over the Conservative Party – from both a comparative and a theoretical perspective. It compares youth turnout and party allegiance over time and traces changes in youth political participation in the UK since the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis – from austerity, to the 2016 EU referendum, to the rise of Corbyn – up until the June 2017 General Election. The book identifies the rise of cosmopolitan values and left-leaning attitudes amongst Young Millennials, particularly students and young women. The situation in the UK is also contrasted with developments in youth participation in other established democracies, including the youthquakes inspired by Obama in the US (2008) and Trudeau in Canada (2015).

It has been over twenty years since the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland voted for devolution. Over that time, the devolved legislatures have established themselves and matured their approach to governance. At different times and for different reasons, each has put wellbeing at the heart of their approach – codifying their values and goals within wellbeing frameworks. This open access book explores, for the first time, why each set their goal as improving wellbeing and how they balance the core elements of societal wellbeing (economic, social and environmental outcomes). Do the frameworks represent a genuine attempt to think differently about how devolved government can plan and organise public services? And if so, what early indications are there of the impact is this having on people's lives?

This book examines why press freedom has not become part of the established international human rights debate, despite its centrality to democratic theory. It argues that an unrestricted press is not just an important economic actor, but also an influential power in the political process, a status that interferes with government interests of sustaining their own power and influence. Despite the popularity of ideational explanations in the field of human rights studies, in the case of promoting press freedom, considerations of power and strategic interests rather than ideas dominate state behavior. The author makes the case that the current place of press freedom in the human rights debate needs to be rethought not only in developing countries, but in liberal democracies as well.

This book offers a novel, refreshing and politically engaged way to think about public policy. Instead of treating policy as simply the government's best efforts to address problems, it offers a way to question critically how policies produce “problems” as particular sorts of problems, with important political implications. Governing, it is argued, takes place through these problematizations. According to the authors, interrogating policies and policy proposals as problematizations involves asking questions about the assumptions they rely upon, how they have been made, what their effects are, as well as how they could be unmade. To enable this form of critical analysis, this book introduces an analytic strategy, the “What's the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach. It features examples of applications of the approach with topics as diverse as obesity, economic policy, migration, drug and alcohol policy, and gender equality to illustrate the growing popularity of this way of thinking and to provide clear and useful examples of poststructural policy analysis in practice.

Comprising case studies of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, this edited volume explores the key characteristics of democratic governance in Northeast Asia. Each democracy is assessed on the extent to which it enables the flourishing of social capital; prioritizes the interests of all as characterized by freedom from fear and want; and empowers all to participate in the democratic process and governance. With particular focus on the experience of minorities, this volume contends that the acid test of democratic governance is not how well the government represents the interests of the elites, or even the majority, but rather how it cares for the needs of vulnerable groups in society.

Based on document analysis, and on the evaluations, perceptions and judgments of people involved in framing, making, and applying foreign policy in both countries as foreign affairs officials, law makers, or think tanks'associates, this book presents the differing worldviews and concepts for establishing an international order. It is argued that the differences between U.S. and French approaches to foreign policies and international affairs are historically entrenched in political cultures, and could transcend other elements such as economic interests, or the political inclinations of the individuals or parties who control their governments. Many of the findings could be applied to the differences and similarities between the U.S. and other European countries.

Learning from the successes and failures of others is a necessity in the field of public sector innovation. This book develops guidelines for policymakers, practitioners and policy analysts to understand what drives policy success and to transfer innovations from a source case to a target case with a view to assisting effective policy design.