Books about Gridlock from Amazon.com

Lawrence Lessig on The Gridlock Economy
Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society, as well as CEO of the Creative Commons project and the author of Code, Free Culture, and The Future of Ideas. In an exclusive guest review for Amazon.com, Lessig shares his praise for The Gridlock Economy and its sizable contribution to the economic policy debate.


For forty years, "the tragedy of the commons" has set the frame for an extraordinary range of social, economic, and legal thought. It oriented policy prescriptions. It set the baseline on reasonable policy alternatives. Its strong conclusion in favor of assigning property rights whenever possible has had a profound effect on everything from intellectual property policy to spectrum regulation. Its simple, intuitive analysis became second nature to a generation of policy makers.

Heller's book, The Gridlock Economy, completely inverts this framework for some of the most important policy questions we will face in the digital age. His clear and beautifully crafted analysis is absolutely compelling, and will fundamentally change the debate in core policy areas. There are very few books that reorient a field. Almost none that reorient many fields. This is in that "almost none" category: Paradigms will shift. Many of them. --Lawrence Lessig

As social, political, and business forces struggle to come to terms with new communications technology, innovation doesn't progress--it freezes up. This sociopolitical and economic gridlock is what Neuman, McKnight, and Solomon are calling the "Gordian Knot." The authors examine how similar gridlock has happened in the past with other new technologies; for example, during the development of the railroad, among the telephone companies, and, more recently, with the international and inter-industrial wrestling matches over High Definition Television. The introduction of each of these technologies has involved a clash of economic interests among industrial giants or would-be giants--all of which have struggled to control access, standards, and proprietary technology in the emerging industry.

Meanwhile, government has tried to contend with the issue of how much control to exert over standards, technology, and rate structures in order to protect both the industries and the consumers. As the book explains, the resulting gridlock has often resulted in new industries taking decades to become mature, efficient, and able to operate profitably without unfairly exploiting their customers. In the minds of the authors, with modern telecommunications becoming an increasingly vital part of our daily lives and businesses, we can't afford such a tangled knot.

Neuman, McKnight, and Solomon propose cutting the Gordian Knot of gridlock with Open Communications Infrastructure (OCI), a system that they feel best combines the benefits of government oversight with those of laissez-faire. OCI is a system of largely free-market competition with just enough governmental oversight to ensure that competitors stay within bounds. Those bounds are described by the four essential qualities of the infrastructure: open architecture, open access, universal access, and flexible access.

The authors present their arguments in a clear, precise style and with a dry sense of humor. The many case histories illustrate the ironies of human folly and help you take a second look at our technological progress of the past 150 years, clearly stating that we could have progressed much further by now. Neuman, McKnight, and Solomon conclude by showing that this gridlock will have to change if we wish for the cybercultural revolution to proceed according to our dreams..
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Winner, 2008 Lynton Keith Caldwell Award for the best book in environmental politics and policy, awarded by the Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy section of the American Political Science Association. and Winner, Jackets and Covers Category, 2007 AAUP Book, Journal, and Jacket Show.

The "golden era" of American environmental lawmaking, between 1964 and 1980, saw twenty-two pieces of major environmental legislation (including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act) passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed into law by presidents of both parties. But since then environmental issues have divided the parties and engendered bitter interest-group politics, with most new proposals blocked by legislative gridlock. In this book, Christopher McGrory Klyza and David Sousa argue that this long-standing legislative stalemate at the national level has forced environmental policymaking onto other pathways, both inside and outside government. Despite the congressional impasse, they write, environmental policymaking today is vibrant and complex--although the results fall short of what is needed in the years ahead.

Klyza and Sousa identify and analyze five alternative policy paths, which they illustrate with case studies: "appropriations politics" in Congress; executive authority, including the rulemaking process; the role of the courts, whose role in environmental policymaking has grown in the era of legislative gridlock; “next-generation” collaborative experiments (which, the authors argue, should be seen as an important approach but not a panacea); and policymaking at the state level. Their comprehensive analysis of the state of environmental policymaking since 1990 shows that, although legislative gridlock is unlikely to dissipate anytime soon, the nation continues to move in the direction favored by environmentalists, largely because of the policy legacies of the 1960s and 1970s that have created an enduring 'green state" rooted in statutes, bureaucratic routines, and public expectations..
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Gridlock is not a modern legislative condition. Although the term is said to have entered the American political lexicon after the 1980 elections, Alexander Hamilton complained about it more than two hundred years ago.

In many ways, stalemate seems endemic to American politics. Constitutional skeptics even suggest that the framers intentionally designed the Constitution to guarantee gridlock.

In this book, Sarah Binder examines the causes and consequences of gridlock, focusing on the ability of Congress to broach and secure policy compromise on significant national issues. Reviewing more than fifty years of legislative history, Binder measures the frequency of deadlock during that time and offers concrete advice for policymakers interested in improving the institutional capacity of Congress.

Binder begins by revisiting the notion of "framers' intent," investigating whether gridlock was the preferred outcome of those who designed the American system of separated powers. Her research suggests that frequent policy gridlock might instead be an unintended consequence of constitutional design.

Next, she explores the ways in which elections and institutions together shape the capacity of Congress and the president to make public law. She examines two facets of its institutional evolution: the emergence of the Senate as a coequal legislative partner of the House and the insertion of political parties into a legislative arena originally devoid of parties.

Finally, she offers a new empirical approach for testing accounts of policy stalemate during the decades since World War II. These measurements reveal patterns in legislative performance during the second half of the twentieth century, showing the frequency of policy deadlock and the legislative stages at which it has most often emerged in the postwar period.

Binder uses the new measure of stalemate to explain empirical patterns in the frequency of gridlock. The results weave together the effects of institutions and elections and place in perspective the impact of divided government on legislative performance.

The conclusion addresses the consequences of legislative stalemate, assessing whether and to what degree deadlock might affect electoral fortunes, political ambitions, and institutional reputations of legislators and presidents. The results suggest that recurring episodes of stalemate pose a dilemma for legislators and others who care about the institutional standing and capacity of Congress. Binder encourages scholars, political observers, and lawmakers to consider modest reforms that could have strong and salutary effects on the institutional standing and legitimacy of Congress and the president..
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Christians have struggled with racial issues for centuries, and often inadvertently contribute to the problem. Many proposed solutions have been helpful, but these only take us so far. Adding to this complex situation is the reality that Christians of different races see the issues differently.Sociologist George Yancey surveys a range of approaches to racial healing that Christians have used and offers a new model for moving forward. The first part of the book analyzes four secular models regarding race used by Christians (colorblindness, Anglo-conformity, multiculturalism and white responsibility) and shows how each has its own advantages and limitations. Part two offers a new "mutual responsibility" model, which acknowledges that both majority and minority cultures have their own challenges, tendencies, and sins to repent of, and that people of different races approach racial reconciliation and justice in differing but complementary ways.Yancey's vision offers hope that people of all races can walk together on a shared path--not as adversaries, but as partners..
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In this bound-to-be controversial book, Lant Pritchett argues that irresistible demographic forces leading to greater international labor mobility are being checked by immovable anti-immigration ideas of the citizens of rich countries. He proposes breaking the deadlock through policies that support development while also being politically acceptable in those well-off nations. These include reliance on bilateral rather than multilateral agreements; greater use of temporary worker permits; permit rationing; and protection of migrants' fundamental human rights..
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A Christian Approach to Controversial Topics in Science

Cloning, the environment, stem cell research, cutting-edge reproductive technologies, genetic engineering . . . Splashed across television screens and newspapers and argued in classrooms and over the water cooler, these are among the most hotly-debated issues of our day. Does religion belong in the laboratory? What relationship exists between science and Christian faith? Are the two mutually exclusive? Arguing that Christianity has much to contribute to the scientific and ethical debates facing today's world, gifted scientists and committed Christians Alexander and White ask the hard questions as they examine some of the greatest scientific and ethical challenges of the age.

Topics include: • the new genetics

• reproductive technologies

• cloning

• the significance of evolution

• the environment and climate change

• sustainable consumption.
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