Explaining Religious Party Strength explores why religious political parties are electorally successful in some countries but not in others. Drawing on insights from political science and sociology, this book argues that religious parties are typically formed for defensive reasons, reacting against state-builders’ attempts to secularize public services such as education, welfare, and healthcare. Building on these findings, the author argues that the strength of religious parties is determined by the infrastructural power of the state. Weak states that fail to provide adequate public services open up space for religious communities to build a dense network of private schools, hospitals, and charities, which translates into votes for religious political parties. By contrast, strong states that provide efficient public services squeeze out private welfare providers, undermining the electoral strength of religious political parties. The author tests this theory through statistical analysis, using a new dataset on all religious parties which have participated in national parliamentary elections between 1800 and 2015. He includes comparative historical analyses of Roman Catholic political parties in France and Italy and Sunni Islamic political parties in Egypt, Turkey, and Albania. This book will interest students and scholars of religion and politics, specifically those interested in party formation, voting, and political activism, as well as policymakers.

Rather than simply asserting that all social policies in all capitalist societies exist to maintain capitalism and serve the long-term interests of the capitalist class, PRT examines the nature and impact of social policies and the level and types of social inequality in a variety of advanced capitalist nations.

This book is to date the first and only study on Pakistan's foreign policy decision making process. It discusses the hows and whys of its foreign policy as it developed in a particular fashion based on a certain self view generating a world view. Post 9/11 Change requires a fundamental change in self image and world view based on that new self image that goes beyond the act of becoming US ally in Afghanistan or abandoning the policy of supporting Taliban. The main topic of the study is identification of that change, its requirements and some basic suggestions as to how to go about it. The book traces the historical International and Domestic context of Pakistan's Post 9/11 Afghan Policy. It analyses the regional impact of the decision, the domestic debate that it generated and concludes with identifications of implications for changes in Pakistan, required for sustenance of its changed policy.