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Few virtues are as celebrated in contemporary culture as openness. Rooted in software culture and carrying more than a whiff of Silicon Valley technical utopianism, openness—of decision-making, data, and organizational structure—is seen as the cure for many problems in politics and business. But what does openness mean, and what would a political theory of openness look like? With Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness, Nathaniel Tkacz uses Wikipedia, the most prominent product of open organization, to analyze the theory and politics of openness in practice—and to break its spell. Through discussions of edit wars, article deletion policies, user access levels, and more, Tkacz enables us to see how the key concepts of openness—including collaboration, ad-hocracy, and the splitting of contested projects through "forking"—play out in reality. The resulting book is the richest critical analysis of openness to date, one that roots media theory in messy reality and thereby helps us move beyond the vaporware promises of digital utopians and take the first steps toward truly understanding what openness does, and does not, have to offer.

The existence of one-party systems of politics within the larger framework of the democratic society merits an increased share of the attention of students of American politics. For too long the common conception has been that one-party politics is a problem unique to the Southern states. This misconception persists even though systematic studies such as the monumental work of V. O. Key and Alexander Heard have illustrated that the politics of the so-called Solid South is in many respects the politics of the nation.As a case in point, an examination of the composition of contemporary legislative delegations indicates that monopolistic control of elective offices is clearly not the exclusive province of the Southern Democrats. In 1955, three out of every four state legislative bodies or congressional delegations were so completely dominated by a single political party that that party controlled more than 66 per cent of the members of the group. Excluding the 15 Border and Southern states, fully half of the remaining 33 state legislatures were controlled by one party holding at least two out of every three seats; in only six states was the controlling margin below 55 per cent. Within the same group of non-Border, non-Southern states, 25 of the 33 congressional delegations were dominated by one party controlling two-thirds or more of the delegation members; only four delegations were so evenly divided as to give the majority party less than 55 per cent of the members.

Many commentators have described Barack Obama as a 'deracialized' politician. In contrast to 'racialized' Black candidates, deracialized politicians are said to deemphasize their Black racial identity, downplay the racial legacies of American inequality, and favor race-neutral over racially targeted policies. Puzzlingly, this narrative of Obama's racial politics sits incongruously with his political curriculum vitae, spent largely in contexts which are difficult to describe as deracialized. This article holds that commentators have misjudged Barack Obama's racial politics by conflating a contingent electoral strategy with a deeper expression of Obama's racial philosophical commitments. In explaining these commitments, the article finds the deracialized/racialized framing inadequate. Instead, it favors the typology of racial policy alliances situating Obama within the "race-conscious" policy alliance rather than the "color-blind" alliance. By returning to the site of Obama's political development, Hyde Park in Chicago, the paper uncovers a tradition of racial politics in which Blacks formed coalitions with progressive Whites but also embraced Black racial identity, acknowledged the enduring legacies of slavery and Jim Crow, and supported targeted policies to overturn these racial legacies. The article argues that Obama was an inheritor of this tradition.

The importance of evaluation is well acknowledged in thedomain of public policy and public administration. Politics, ethics and theroles and responsibilities of professionals are closely intermingled in thedomain of policy evaluation. However, their implications are often poorlyunderstood. Since the field of evaluation is expanding quite significantly,it demands to have a substantial level of understanding about the rolesand responsibilities of professional evaluators and their interface with theethical and political aspects of policy evaluation. This paper, through acontent analysis, explores the various dynamics related to the roles andresponsibilities of professionals, and issues linked up with politics andethics of policyevaluation. Without having a careful consideration of theseaspects, the fundamental purpose of policy evaluation might be plungedinto serious tribulation. Thus, a professional evaluator must demonstratehighest professionalism in dealing with ethics and politics.

Over the quarter-century since the Asian financial crisis, social inequality has become more visible, and precariousness is now a part of daily life for many in South Korea. Examining patterns of disparity in different areas and the ways in which social discontent with increasing inequality is manifested and politicized will advance our understanding of the politics of social inequality—how perceived inequality leads to political preferences and collective action. This essay describes how different forms of inequality have evolved in South Korea since the late 1990s, what narratives have formed around these issues, and how they have shaped South Korean politics.

On April 21, 2022, Dr. Lisa Sundstrom, an expert on Russian politics and a professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC), presented Domestic Russian Politics and Comparative Democratization at the April Digital Roundtable event hosted by the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS)-Vancouver. The key points of discussion included the popularity of the war in Russia, the economic impacts of sanctions and military losses, and the potential sources of opposition to President Vladimir Putin. Dr. Sundstrom's presentation was followed by a question-and-answer period with questions from the audience and CASIS-Vancouver executives.

This article explores the relationship between the changing demands of nationhood and identity politics in India. The author analyzes the ideologies of nationalism and Hindutva through the lenses of space to understand how these concepts affect policies such as the Mandal Commission report, which triggered the usurpation of politics and eventually the government by communal political forces in India. As a policy, the Mandal report is a part of historic attempts to redefine the access and entry of the disadvantaged other in the educational and employment spheres. This article attempts to illuminate how the boundaries between political and religious spaces in India have become blurred in recent decades.

The author reports on the current status of cities in the devolving federal system and the resulting implications for city politics. In particular, he examines the strength of the fiscal link between the federal government and municipal governments and the implications of growing interest in federal devolution for city government. He concludes by arguing that growing local fiscal and administrative self-reliance create pressures on local politicians to focus on public management skills rather than on the pursuit of social and racial agendas that were the focus two decades ago. The result is a deep change in the moral tenor of city politics.