Competitions Books

Roger Terry's book "Economic Insanity" is nothing less than an expose of our vaunted economic system. Terry concisely dissects the underlying assumptions, the inherent contradictions that are embedded in the foundation upon which we have erected our economic house of cards.

Not only do most of the underlying assumptions betray the intent of our Founding Fathers, but also, in the concept of endless growth, flies in the face of nature's reality.
Basic morality sits on the sidelines, as the active players of greed, shortsightedness, and sheer ignorance play the economic game on the world's field, which if played out to its logical conclusion, can only eventuate in Terry's warning about society: "We are a society, we claim to be civilized, and we must either unite and thrive or splinter, decline, and die as a society."

There is warning enough in Terry's splendid and courageously frank exposition. The question is: Do we have time enough to make the necessary repairs?

Having had the pleasure of accompanying this author during a majority of the first-hand research done for this project, I can accurately say that this book provides a concise and accurate depiction of the need to combine technical, military, and economic strategies to ensure forward progress in "the information age". Way to go Dad!

Schedler gelingt es mit diesem Sammelband und seiner dichten und wohlformulierten Einleitung eine ganze Reihe empirischer und theoretischer Erkenntnisse zu komprimieren und eine Form zu geben, die es Komparativisten und Länderspezialisten künftig erlauben wird, ihre Teilstudien in einen größeren internationalen Zusammenhang zu stellen und nach Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschieden mit ähnlich strukturierten Staatsapparaten in anderen Weltregionen zu suchen.
Nach Schedlers hervorragender Vorstellung des Konzepts und der Logik des elektoralen Autoritarismus folgen zwölf weitere Beiträge von zumeist ausgewiesenen Politik- und Regionalwissenschaftlern, die verschiedene Teilaspekte und Sonderformen dieses und angrenzender Regimetypen beleuchten. Gerardo L. Munck weist auf einige methodologische Probleme einer Grenzziehung zwischen verschiedenen Regierungsformen und deren Hybriden hin. Jonathan Hartlyn und Jennifer McCoy entwickeln Verallgemeinerungen über Probleme von Wahlbeobachtern bei der Bewertung von Wahlmanipulationen. Joy Langston beantwortet die Frage, wann es zum Elitenkonflikt kommt und Regierungsparteien sich spalten. William Case analysiert verschiedene Manipulationsstrategien, die es Regierenden erlauben, die Wahlarena zu kontrollieren. Mark R. Thompson und Phillip Kuntz behandeln Situationen, in welchen die Regierenden auf das Mittel der direkten Wahlfälschung zurückgreifen. John F. Clark beantwortet die Frage, unter welchen Umständen das Militär sich in den Wahlprozeß einmischt. Stefan Lindberg widmet sich dem Thema, unter welchen Bedingungen und mit welchen Zielstellungen Oppositionsparteien Wahlen boykottieren. Lucan A. Way behandelt die paradoxe Situation, in der die Schwäche des Apparates eines bestimmten Staates, wie etwa der postkommunistischen Republik Moldau, zu einer Stärkung des politischen Wettbewerbs und Pluralismus' führen kann. M. Steven Fish stellt eine hochinteressante Statistik vor, die zu belegen scheint, dass weniger der Demokratietyp - präsidial oder parlamentarisch - als solcher, als die relative Stärke des Parlaments gegenüber der Exekutive die Qualität und Überlebenschancen neuer Demokratien bestimmen. Der Erfolg des Demokratisierungsprozesses steht demnach in direktem Zusammenhang mit der tatsächlichen Macht der Legislative - ob nun in einem formal parlamentarischen, semipräsidentiellen oder präsidentiellen System. Sollte sich die Korrektheit dieser Korrelation in Folgestudien bestätigen, würde dieser Band mit Fishs Aufsatz einen weiteren womöglich einst als bahnbrechend angesehenen Beitrag zu vergleichenden Regimeforschung leisten und eine bedeutende Modifizierung der bekannten These von Juan J. Linz, Alfred Stepan und anderen über den demokratisierungsbegünstigenden Charakter der parlamentarischen Staatsform für Jungdemokratien bedeuten.
In den beiden abschließenden Aufsätzen legen Steven Levitsky und Way zunächst dar, inwieweit und auf welche Art und Weise internationale Faktoren die innenpolitische Kräftebalance in einem Transformationsstaat beeinflussen können, und schließlich behandelt Richard Snyder das Spektrum der heute existierenden klar nichtdemokratischen Regimes, welchen mehr Aufmerksamkeit in der internationalen Forschung zukommen müsse.

This is a must read in the area of divided government. The author debunks some of the popular explanations for divided government and then offers an explanation grounded in a review of US House elections. A must read.

This is a brilliant, thoughtful and concise explanation of the equality of opportunity concept that blends ideas from economics and philosophy to provide deep insights into the theoretical and practical implications of equalizing opportunity. It will become the benchmark on the topic for many years to come.

It can be consumed in a weekend and will enable you to speak to competetive strategy methodoligies and application of theory. It gives you a clear understanding of MBA crap-speak with regards to competetive business strategy, as well as providing a wealth of current management tools that will enable better understanding of any business or organization. Highly recommended, even if you do have a business degree, because no one can remember all this stuff...

I highly recommend this book. This book provided me with insights on various Intellectual property disciplines. It helped guide me on the best new strategies, developments, and technologies in trademarks and unfair competition

This is a very useful handbook for practitioners and teachers in antritust matters. This volume contents a complete overview of the european common legislation and the principles that orient the national antitrust laws in Europe. The organization of the information makes it an systemait and valuable reference to people starting in this area. The references to the jurisprudence and doctrine produced during the last 40 years is also useful and helpful. It is one of the top books regarding a systematic study about the requirements to analyze monopolistic practices. It is very useful to find differences between the US system and the european approach to the antitrust cases. Another area that is develop properly, is the relationship between antotrust an another fields like intellectual property, national jurisdiction and civil law.

This book is the "bible" for evolutionary biologists interested in sibling rivalry, and a valuable resource for those interested in parent-offspring conflict. The writing style is engaging and very entertaining for a scientific book, although the math may be difficult for some. A definite must-read for anyone in this area, or for those who are generally interested in Hamiltonian fitness and its impacts.

Davis and Spekman have written an excellent work that that takes two critical points of departure from traditional supply chain management (SCM) literature. First, Davis and Spekman link SCM with strategy, indicating that SCM (or any form of functional excellence) must be valued for its usefulness as a source of competitive advantage - not as an end in itself.

Second, and more importantly, Davis and Spekman emphasize the importance (and challenge) of true collaboration across enterprise boundaries. While supply chain integration is usually treated as a primarily a matter of gaining visibility or improving synchronization throughout a chain (ie, linking IT systems), Davis and Spekman show that true collaboration depends the integration of business processes and the creation of trust outside traditional enterprise barriers. In short, Davis and Spekman have elevated trust to the level of an absolutely necessary condition for true collaboration in the context of SCM.

Davis's and Spekman's message comes none too soon for companies that have been been burned by ERP or CRM system implementations that have failed to produce results or recover costs, or partnerships that dissolve in frustration. Even when the IT or business process aspects of such implementations are handled flawlessly, ignoring the "softer" side - i.e, failing to build trans-enterprise trust - produces predictable results and destroys shareholder value.

As a consultant dealing with issues surrounding SCM and external coordination, I recommend this book to executives, general managers, and other consultants whose clients struggle to integrate and collaborate across enterprise boundaries.