bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Rise and Fall of Two-Party Electoral Co-Operation
Authors: Evans B. J. , Taylor A. J.
Published: December 2006

Concentration upon aggregate levels of voting behaviour and the two party system have obscured the persistence of electoral co-operation in multi-party systems in British local politics. This article examines the factors contributing to successful electoral co-operation, particularly, a favourable local political culture and élite interaction. This article shows such co-operation to be unstable in the long run. The focus for the study is the Bolton and Huddersfield constituencies.
Divine Analogy: The Theological Politics of John Donne
Authors: Nicholls David
Published: December 2006

Analogies have played an important part in political rhetoric and among the most persistent and powerful has been the analogy between divine and human government. Many sixteenth and seventeenth century defenders of political absolutism employed the image of an absolute God as the model for civil domination. Donne, while vindicating monarchy by analogy to the divine kingship, rejected the notion of arbitrary or tyrannical rule which was becoming increasingly popular as civil war approached. Furthermore the trinitarian image of God was seen by the preacher as a model for the pluralist state. Donne insisted that both divine and civil rule should be seen in the context of law and that ultimately the analogical relationship between the two should be governed by the univocal—the king is in the last resort but a creature of God.
The Rise and Decline of Micronationalism in Mainland France
Authors: Keating Michael
Published: December 2006

The post-war period has seen the development of a number of ‘micronationalist’ movements in the regions of France. These have been based on cultural, economic and political demands. This has led them from a strategy of territorial lobbying to demands for autonomy but the cultural, economic and political strands of the movements have been poorly integrated. In the 1970s, much of the impetus of micro-nationalism was absorbed by the parties of the left which, in the course of the realignment of the party system, were able to accommodate most of their demands. The process is illustrated by an examination of Brittany and Languedoc.
Contradictions in the Government of Educational Change
Authors: Ranson Stewart
Published: December 2006

In the context of declining rolls, contracting resources and mounting youth unemployment, The Department of Education and Science, encouraged by successive Administrations since the mid-1970s, has intervened to direct and restructure education. The paper argues that although there were differences of strategy within the DES there was nevertheless an underlying consensus on policy: to prepare a more vocational curriculum, to rationalize resources, and differentiate opportunities. The Department has claimed that the contradiction between its duty to control education and the powers made available have frustrated its purposes. This paper concludes, however, that the promotion of ideologies and practices of stratification contradict its principal duty to develop through education, individual powers and capacities.
Dominium in Thirteenth and Fourteenth-Century Political Thought and its Seventeenth-Century Heirs: John of Paris and Locke
Authors: Coleman Janet
Published: December 2006

Dominium, the notion of lordship, underwent important changes during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. An examination of the de potestate regia et papali genre, especially the tract by the Dominican John of Paris (1302), illustrates not only a radical attitude to property rights, private ownership and the defence of one's own in theory, but reflects important evolutions in contemporary property law and its consequences for secular sovereignty. John of Paris's analysis of the origins of property prior to government, based on natural law, is directly related to early fourteenth-century justifications of the profit economy, reflecting the passage of dominium from being a relative, interdependent, feudal thing, to independent property. Other theorists also justified the proliferation of active rights to property, responding not only to theory but also to current economic and legal practices. Such arguments were known and used by seventeenth-century writers, especially Locke, whose library holdings and own tract ‘on civil and ecclesiastical power’ as well as his Second Treatise, express a debt to the de potestate regia et papali genre of the late scholastics.
Against Freedom of Expression
Authors: Tännsjö Torbjörn
Published: December 2006

This paper states a common western ideal of freedom of expression. Such an ideal is tenable, it is argued, only if its implementation makes possible a ‘sound mass communication’. A communication is sound if and only if it prepares the way for growth in knowledge, pluralism, and equality of access to mass media. In today's world, with centralized ownership of mass media, the implementation of the common western ideal of freedom of expression does not prepare the way for knowledge, pluralism, and equality. Hence this ideal of freedom of expression is not tenable. Only if freedom of expression is severely restrained by democratic planning does ‘a sound mass communication’ evolve.
Regional Regeneration in Britain: The Territorial Imperative and the Conservative State
Authors: Morgan Kevin
Published: December 2006

The Conservative White Paper on Regional Industrial Development was a frank and belated admission that the geography of relative depression no longer corresponded to the official map of the assisted areas and, as a result, regional policy has recently been subjected to a radical review. This paper outlines some of the reasons for this review and explores the regional implications of the Conservative neo-market strategy. However, despite the economic limitations of regional policy, the latter remains an attractive focus for a wide spectrum of social interests in depressed areas; consequently, it is argued, territorial questions have a contemporary significance despite the demise of peripheral nationalism and devolution.
Peace, Needs and Utopia
Authors: Maley William
Published: December 2006

The well-entrenched minimalist notion of peace has recently been augmented by a notion of positive peace, defined as the absence of structural violence. This paper opens with a critique of Johan Galtung's usage, which conflates ideas better approached separately. It then criticizes the notion of human needs used by Christian Bay as the normative foundation for his idea of positive peace, and by comparing positive peace with Berlin's notion of positive liberty highlights the danger that positive peace might be pursued with direct violence. Despite what Popper argues, the peaceful Utopias of Bay and Galtung need not be pursued with direct violence. However, as they could justify the instrumental use of direct violence, they demand stronger normative foundations than Galtung and Bay have hitherto provided.
Marital Status, Sex and the Formation of Political Attitudes in Adult Life
Authors: Chapman Jenny
Published: December 2006

Little is known about the effect of adult experience on political attitude formation. Recent work on political and social change asks us to take on trust a quantum leap from personality and childhood experience to adult political preference and neither accounts for rapid political change nor acknowledges the variety of experience which may produce a spurious ‘time-lag’ effect in political response to change.

In this study the attitudes of divorced and separated people, a social group recently formed out of the existing adult population, are compared with those of persons without those attributes. The results show that a satisfactory theoretical model of political attitude formation must incorporate adult experience as an important determinant and distinguish carefully between social conditions in general and the specific social experience of individuals.
Obedience to Authority in a Laboratory Setting: Generalizability and Context Dependency
Authors: Helm Charles , Morelli Mario
Published: December 2006

Social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted an empirical, laboratory study of obedience to authority. Milgram suggested that his study and findings have applications and implications for the diverse forms of obedience to authority in political and social life, since he had captured in the laboratory experiment the essence of obedience to authority. This article finds serious reasons for rejecting any facile generalizing from the laboratory setting to the larger world of authority relations. Among such factors are the face-to-face character of Milgram's ‘authority’, the role of manipulative techniques and etiquette, the impoverished notion of legitimacy with which Milgram operates, and the likely influence of background beliefs on the part of subjects in the value of science and scientists. The examination of the generalizability problem then moves to a comparison of the American findings on obedience with similar studies in Australia and West Germany. Finally, the article suggests an alternative theory of obedience in the American setting, and speculates on why Milgram and his associates ‘obeyed’ the ‘dictates' of a laboratory experiment.
James Mill and Scottish Moral Philosophy
Authors: Haakonssen Knud
Published: December 2006

Among James Mill's intellectual starting-points were the idea of a conjectural history of moral institutions which he had adopted from Adam Smith and, more especially, John Millar, and the moral philosophy of Dugald Stewart. The reconciliation of these two strands of Scottish 18th-century moral thought is very problematic, but this presented no real difficulty for Mill since conjectural history lost its vital parts at his hands. This emasculation of the Smith–Millar tradition was as necessary for the Benthamite utilitarianism to which Mill was converted as it had been for the Common Sense moral philosophy of Stewart, and from this angle the former can be elucidated by comparison with the latter.
Marx's Laws
Authors: Farr James
Published: December 2006

Marx was a party to 19th-century debates about what he called the ‘historical social sciences' and their laws. But he was more forthright in rejecting positivism and empiricism than he was in articulating his own constructive position. However, his scattered remarks on method and his own scientific practice provide the appropriate materials for an adequate reconstruction of his views. This essay develops a case that Marx was a scientific realist who rejected the Humean empiricist analysis of causes and laws. In substituting a realist analysis he provided a framework for understanding his own explanatory laws—the economic laws of motion of modern society. Yet Marx did not propose any so-called ‘natural laws of historical development’. Rather he articulated what are more properly termed principles of historical interpretation. In method as in politics Marx thereby offered a genuine alternative to the dominant views of the day.
The Future of the General Secretary
Authors: Gill Graeme
Published: December 2006

Historically, the position of General Secretary has been the most important in the Soviet political structure and the vehicle through which individuals have been able to establish their personal primacy. During the post-Khrushchev period attempts were made to place clear limitations upon that position in order to prevent the recurrence of an activist, powerful General Secretary. The reforms were aimed at (a) producing greater institutional definition of the position of General Secretary and (b) creating a higher level of institutional structuring within the immediate political context in which the post was located. However the attempts at institutional definition have proved to be less restrictive than they had at first appeared, while the higher level of institutional structuring rests upon conventions of political behaviour. Such conventions can change when the political personnel changes, and such a personnel change is now underway. A favourable environment, in which pressures from within the system for a more activist style of leadership enabling the General Secretary to escape from the constraints that have developed around his office, might result.
The Search for a Rational Strategy: The Scottish National Party and Devolution 1974–79
Authors: Levy Roger
Published: December 2006

The systematic study of the policy process of the Scottish National Party has been relatively neglected. It is argued here that rational choice theory can be used as a framework for the analysis of policy. The devolution issue is chosen as it presented especially difficult problems for the Party in terms of attempts to reconcile its basic aspirations with the desire to maximize electoral performance. The experience suggests that the constraints on a ‘rational’ (vote-winning) strategy were overwhelming as the Party progressively withdrew from the main arena of the electoral marketplace and concerned itself increasingly with ‘boardroom’ politics. It is argued that the Party leadership cannot be viewed as a coherent entity which consistently pursued a vote-winning strategy. It was beset by structural weaknesses and internal rivalries which were exacerbated and exposed with the progress of the devolution debate. This resulted in the Party's regress into sectarianism rather than progress to electoral ‘maturity’ as suggested by orthodox models of party development.
History and Theory: The Norman Conquest in Early Stuart Political Thought
Authors: Sommerville Johann P.
Published: December 2006

Orthodoxy maintains that English political thinking before Hobbes was based upon an unphilosophical, precedent-bound reading of history. According to J. G. A. Pocock, Sir Edward Coke typically held that English customary law was pre-historical and that the continuity of English traditions had never been broken by conquest. Conquerors possessed sovereign power; in England there had been no conqueror; so there was no supra-legal sovereign. English liberty was deducible from history.

Pocock's thesis is inadequate since Coke and many others admitted that there had been a conquest. Their claims rested not upon English history but upon theoretical premises characteristic of Continental thought. Coke's concept of custom was itself theory-laden. Rival theories were largely indifferent to the question of the Norman Conquest, a non-issue in political debate.
Liberal Dialogue, Citizenship and Mentally Handicapped Persons
Authors: van den Brink-Budgen Roy P.
Published: December 2006

Liberal theory traditionally neglects the citizenship problems of mentally handicapped persons, preferring to concentrate upon those with unequivocal claims to the status of citizenship. Bruce Ackerman has recently resurrected the usage of dialogic methods in establishing the content of liberal theory. This paper uses different versions of such methods to stress the powerful claims which may, despite Ackerman's denial, be used to extend this status to this group. Three such methods are suggested—representative dialogue, Ackerman's own form of dialogue, and action as dialogue. It is subsequently argued that Ackerman considerably underestimates the interaction between political and biological definitions of incapacity; he, therefore, fails to consider that a lack of citizenship simply reinforces dialogic inability.
The Internationalization of Production, Intra-Core Relations and the State: A Case Study of IBM and the British Computer Industry
Authors: Gottfried Heidi
Published: December 2006

Theories of dependency and development contain several deficiencies which limit their effectiveness for the study of core/core relations. Similarly, frameworks allowing for a study of intra-core relations have not adequately specified the relationship between international and national factors, or their combined effects, in generating inequities between core countries. This case study offers some preliminary observations about the relationship between internationalization of production and national economic planning efforts. The study highlights several points concerning the matrix of international and national political-economic factors, and focuses on particular patterns resulting from the configuration of these factors in the case of the British computer industry and International Business Machines (IBM).
The Central Policy Review Staff, 1970–1983
Authors: James Simon
Published: December 2006

This article reviews the creation, structure and output of the Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS) and compares the intentions of its founders with the practical achievements of its members. While the Staff produced reports of a high standard, ministerial interest was disappointingly half-hearted, which forced the Staff to rely on Prime Ministerial support more than it would have liked; in contrast, relations with the civil service in time proved more productive than anticipated. The article also examines the many changes in the Staff's activities made necessary by the changing requirements of successive governments—particularly since 1979—and finally suggests a form that a revived central analytical capability might take and the lessons that it should learn from the CPRS.
Hegel on Marriage and Politics
Authors: Steinberger Peter J.
Published: December 2006

This essay examines Hegel's theory of marriage and the rôle that it plays in the argument of the Philosophy of Right. It aims to show that the theory of marriage is based on a particular conception of the human self as developed in the threefold structure of the Philosophy of Right. It also seeks to demonstrate the cogency and relevance of Hegel's specific arguments pertaining to love, sensuality, the marriage contract, and the marriage ceremony. Finally, it characterizes the precise place and function of the theory of marriage in the overall dialectic of Right.
Consumption Cleavages and Welfare Politics
Authors: Taylor-Gooby Peter
Published: December 2006

The rôle of consumption cleavages in influencing political behaviour has received a great deal of attention in recent years. This paper argues that some critics have misunderstood the approach as a theory about the direct influence of social circumstances on behaviour, rather than as a theory about the way in which people's perceptions of one another's positions in relation to the means of consumption are articulated by political parties to become bases for political action. Dunleavy has argued that ideas about self-interest in state and private consumption in relation to other people are of the greatest importance in this, while Saunders suggests that the security associated with private property rights has stronger influence. Both these claims are tested with data from a recent national survey. ‘Consumption sector’ is shown to play a minor but significant rôle in influencing ideas. Part of this influence appears to lie in the social meaning of private property, as Saunders claims. Comparisons of relative advantage across sectoral cleavages, however, contribute little to the explanation of political ideas.
Social Change and Moral Politics: The Irish Constitutional Referendum 1983
Authors: Girvin Brian
Published: December 2006

The dominance of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has been challenged by rapid socioeconomic change. To counter emerging secularist trends, anti-abortion activists pressurized the political parties to agree to hold a referendum for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. Opposition to the referendum, and party divisions, led to the active involvement by the Catholic Church and the hierarchy in the campaign. Although the amendment was passed, the intervention of the Church has not been beneficial to it as an institution. This is the first time since the establishment of the Irish state that a significant cleavage has emerged around a religious issue. The referendum reflected a change in Irish politics—new divisions had emerged, based on age, class, religion and place of residence. This change is now having an impact on the political parties.
Predicting the Labour Vote in 1983: Social Backgrounds versus Subjective Evaluations
Authors: Whiteley Paul
Published: December 2006

Labour's electoral performance in the 1983 General Election is examined in the light of a theoretical model of voting behaviour, originally developed to explain the 1979 election. In this model, voting behaviour is seen as a product of the individual's social attributes and his or her subjective evaluations of the Labour Party. The evidence indicates that subjective evaluations, particularly affective and retrospective evaluations, were far more important than social attributes in predicting the Labour vote in 1983. Moreover the latter were only weakly related to the former, which suggests that purely sociological accounts of electoral choice are becoming increasingly obsolescent in explaining and predicting electoral behaviour in Britain.
Mill and the Value of Moral Distress
Authors: Waldron Jeremy
Published: December 2006

People are sometimes distressed by the bare knowledge that lifestyles are being practised or opinions held which they take to be immoral. Is this distress to be regarded as harm for the purposes of Mill's Harm Principle? I argue, first, that this is an issue that is to be resolved not by analysis of the concept of harm but by reference to the arguments in On Liberty with which the Harm Principle is supported. Secondly, I argue that reference to those arguments makes it clear beyond doubt that, since Mill valued moral confrontation and the shattering of moral complacency as means to social progress, he must have regarded moral distress as a positive good rather than as a harm that society ought to intervene to prevent. Thirdly, I relate this interpretation to Mill's points about temperance, decency and good manners. I argue, finally, that my interpretation is inconsistent with Mill's underlying utilitarianism only if the latter is understood in a crudely hedonistic way.
Legitimacy, Authority and the Transfer of Power in Ghana
Authors: Crook Richard C.
Published: December 2006

The problems of authority and legitimacy experienced by post-colonial states are often explained in terms of a ‘colonial legacy’. The validity of this hypothesis is examined, in the case of Ghana, by analysing changes in the kinds of legitimacy claimed by the state from the colonial period through decolonization to independence. It is concluded that, whilst the most enduring legacy of colonialism was the attempt to found legitimacy in particularistic, indigenous systems of law, the decolonization process failed to transfer any one of the new, competing claims to legitimacy which emerged. Nationalism, of its very nature, was precluded from claiming authority on the basis of expertise in being European, and was also led to deny the validity of indigenous cultures. Representative democracy too was contradictory in so far as its results often challenged the nationalists' conception of a nonethnic national identity. Ultimately neither democracy nor ‘being African’ was a sufficient basis for the legitimacy of the new state.
Structural Power—A Contradiction in Terms?
Authors: Ward Hugh
Published: December 2006

The idea that capital possesses structural power over the state is of growing importance. Yet the theoretical literature on power has argued that this concept is either a contradiction in terms or is conceptually redundant. This paper seeks to show that a coherent distinction can be made between structural power, non-structural power, and structural constraints. These distinctions are based upon a concept of human agency which draws attention to the peculiar pasts of those individuals occupying the same type of structural position. It is argued that these distinctions are both widely applicable and ‘empirically’ relevant.
Economic Conditions and Constituency Voting in Great Britain
Authors: Owens John R. , Wade Larry L.
Published: December 2006

The extent to which levels and trends in local unemployment and income influenced the Conservative vote in 633 separate British constituency elections in 1983 is estimated in several regression models. Long-term influences on voting are controlled by the endogenous variables of social class and territoriality. It is argued that this research design is superior to previous ones that have treated general elections as national elections in exploring the economic theory of voting. Sensitivity analysis (the use of several models to illuminate the research problem posed) suggests that, unlike America congressional elections, current rates and trends in local unemployment and income exerted a substantial and systematic influence on constituency voting.
The Reagan Administration's Foreign Policy, 1981—1985: Learning to Live with Uncertainty?
Authors: Smith Michael
Published: December 2006

The Reagan administration's foreign policy from 1981 to 1985 provides an intriguing test of a central problem faced by foreign-policy-makers: the need to cope with uncertainty in policy formulation and implementation. This article sets out to explore the problem and to formulate propositions about the ways in which policy-makers might respond to it. The argument has three stages: first, it identifies some sources and manifestations of uncertainty in foreign policy; secondly, it develops a framework within which policy-makers' responses to uncertainty can be located; and finally, it applies the framework to Reaganite foreign policy. Two sets of conclusions emerge: first, that it is important to identify ways in which foreign-policy-makers both accept uncertainty and adjust to it; and secondly, that the identification of shifting patterns of response leads to further questions about the ‘learning processes' manifested in policy-making.
Aristotle on the Foundations of the State
Authors: Everson Stephen
Published: December 2006

Aristotle's Politics shows an apparent tension between a recognition of the desirability of individual liberty and his claim that ‘none of the citizens belongs to himself but all belong to the state’. We can start to resolve that tension by considering Aristotle's doctrine of man as a political animal. Artistotle offers a particular account of the nature of man according to which his specifically human capacities cannot be realized outside of the state. This is not an account adopted arbitrarily for Aristotle's political theory but follows directly from his analysis of substances in the Physics. On Aristotle's account of human nature, man is essentially rational and virtuous and the political theory allows the rational and virtuous man to be as free as possible without intefering with others. Some are less rational and are subject to authority in virtue of this. We can see that Aristotle's theory has advantages over rights-based theories since Aristotle has an account of what constitutes human flourishing, without which one cannot found rights claims.
The Strange Story of Judge Robert Bork and a Vacancy on the United States Supreme Court
Authors: Hodder-Williams Richard
Published: December 2006

President Reagan's nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court was expected by most people to lead to confirmation. It did not. This article examines the special importance of the vacancy created by Justice Lewis Powell's retirement, the philosophical debate which the nomination generated, the political and strategic calculations of the actors involved (especially the unprecedented level and nature of interest group involvement) and the performance of Judge Bork himself during the congressional hearings. It posits a multi-causal explanation. The importance of the episode, however, lies less in what it tells us about the Supreme Court appointment process and more in what it tells us about the current unsatisfactory condition of executive–legislative relations in a political system predicated on the separation of powers.
Autonomy and Egalitarianism
Authors: Young Robert
Published: December 2006

In this article I consider the alleged incompatibility between individual autonomy and the achievement and subsequent maintenance of an egalitarian society. I argue that not only is there no incompatibility, but that it is only where an egalitarian society is in place that a like autonomy can be exercised by each citizen. To make out my case I discuss the three main grounds that have been advanced to show there is such an incompatibility. Opponents of egalitarianism contend that egalitarian goals can only be achieved with losses in autonomy; in particular, losses through infringements on the civil liberties of individual citizens, losses in the scope individuals have to exercise and exploit their own talents and losses in control over the income and wealth to which individuals are entitled as a result of the exercise of their talents. The first of these contentions is dealt with quite briefly but the second and third go to the heart of the matter and accordingly are given fuller discussion. None of the three can be convincingly made out because it is precisely where there are significant inequalities in income and wealth that significant differences exist in the scope individuals have to fulfil their life-plans and thus to exercise their individual autonomy.
The National and International Context of French Policy Communities
Authors: Mény Yves
Published: December 2006

There are numerous, well-organized policy communities in France, based upon specialized corps of senior administrative officials in symbiosis with the environment they are responsible for regulating and managing. They also derive their strength from the integration of the groups concerned in the policy process, allowing them to compensate for the weakness of their organization and social base by the privileged access and legitimacy they acquire. Nevertheless, the traditional way in which the policy process is structured is modified by the territorial shift (both local and international) in the arenas in which public policies are made.
The Internal Politics of Parties: The Law of Curvilinear Disparity Revisited
Authors: Kitschelt Herbert
Published: December 2006

One of the few efforts to link systemic and organizational determinants of party strategies is provided by what John May dubbed the ‘law of curvilinear disparity’. According to this law, voters, party activists and leaders have necessarily divergent political ideologies. These systematic differences are attributable to the activists' motivations and the constraints of party competition. This paper argues that the law is empirically valid only under distinctive behavioural, organizational and institutional conditions which are not specified in its general formulation. Thus, the law is only a special case in a broader theory reconstructing the interaction between constituencies, intra-party politics and party competition. This alternative theory is partially tested with survey data from party activists in the Belgian ecology parties Agalev and Ecolo.
The 1689 Bill of Rights
Authors: Lock Geoffrey
Published: December 2006

Following the disastrous reign of James II, the Bill of Rights was introduced to curb future arbitrary behaviour by the Crown. Five of the thirteen Articles are still active and cases illustrating their use in the courts are described. The courts have enforced the requirement for parliamentary consent to taxation and the ban on the executive's power to suspend statutes but have been less strict over the dispensing power. Article 9, on parliamentary freedom of speech, is in active use, and developments in Australia and Canada are reviewed. Scotland's own legislation – the Claim of Right – is discussed briefly. Most of the Bill probably does not apply to Northern Ireland. Opinions vary on the Bill's importance but in the author's view it is still a potent force.
Politics in a Cold Climate: The Conservative Decline in Scotland
Authors: Kendrick Stephen , McCrone David
Published: December 2006

An important feature over the last 30 years has been the increasing shortfall in the Conservative vote in Scotland compared with England. The Conservative Party, despite social structural disadvantages in terms of housing tenure and social class, did unusually well until the mid-1950s, particularly among Unionists and Protestants. After considering the historical and religious factors explaining earlier Conservative political strength, it is argued that two factors help to explain the changing politics of the state in Scotland: the establishment of Scotland as a separate unit of economic management in popular perception and the greater dependence on direct state involvement. The Scottish economic dimension has made Scotland an ideological category largely incompatible with Conservative English/British national rhetoric as employed by Mrs Thatcher.
From a Positive to a Cultural Science: Towards a New Rationale for Political Studies
Authors: Emy Hugh V.
Published: December 2006

This article surveys developments in recent social theory in the course of outlining a new rationale for Politics following the subject's own expansion and in the light of developments in post-empiricist thought. It suggests reasons for thinking of Politics as a cultural rather than a positive science. It outlines a number of core or primary political problems which comprise the intellectual foundations of the discipline. It suggests, overall, that Politics is especially concerned with maintaining and improving the viability of human association(s) in the light of conditions created by the rise and expansion of complex societies.
Commune Democracy and Gorbachev's Reforms
Authors: Sakwa Richard
Published: December 2006

The process of democratic restructuring in the Soviet Union since 1986 can be understood in terms of a revival of the democratic ideal of a participatory and self-managing society. The concept of commune democracy espoused by Marx and Lenin, however, is problematical, not least because of ambiguities in its relationship to the state, the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the dirigisme of the party. Gorbachev's reforms are developing within the context of an attempt to regenerate commune democracy, and some of the hesitancies of the reform process can be attributed to the contradictions in the theory. The scope for a reconstituted civil society is limited by the inclusive tendencies of traditional commune democracy. The reform process may ultimately be able to exploit the ambiguities in commune democracy sufficiently to allow the development of a law-governed state.
The Resurgence of Political Theory
Authors: Miller David
Published: December 2006

Political theory has flourished over the last 20 years but it has also become more fragmented. The critical study of classic texts has been replaced by a more narrowly historical approach, which seeks to locate texts in their political contexts. A very recent development, conceptual history, promises a closer relationship between historical and contemporary theory. Conceptual analysis has given way to normative political theory, concerned to find principled justifications for political arrangements. The major cleavage has been between individualists, who look for universal foundations in postulates such as human nature, and communitarians, who begin with persons embedded in contingent social relationships and practices. In applied political theory, the major shift has been from institutional questions to the analysis of issues in public policy, such as welfare provision and sexual and racial discrimination.
Policy Community Realism versus ‘New’ Institutionalist Ambiguity
Authors: Jordan Grant
Published: December 2006

There has been widespread interest in the term ‘institution’ within political science in the past five years. Two principal uses of this are identified. The first is associated with the policy community literature and in this sense the institution is an extra-constitutional policy-making arrangement between ministries and clientelistic groups. The second use of the term is associated with state-centred authors who wish to argue for the relative autonomy of political institutions. In this second use there is ambiguity about the scope of the term institution; whether it is, or is not, intended to be confined to traditional institutions or whether the disaggregated state embraces the newer policy community phenomenon.
The Political Economy of Development
Authors: Philip George
Published: December 2006

The approach focuses principally on economic linkages between developed and developing countries. It owes much to studies of Latin America and may be more difficult to apply to other parts of the third world where economic development is not necessarily seen as a primary objective of policy. Studies within the field have not generally succeeded at a global level. They have often been too deterministic to describe a world which is both complex and unpredictable. In any case it is more important to influence policy than to discuss the formation of historical structures. Dependency theory in particular has proved a poor guide to policy-makers. The New Right and public choice theory have been better tailored towards influencing policy-makers, although this approach (like much dependency writing) divorces the content of public policy from the political system in which it is made. However, political economy of development studies have worked well at a lower level of abstraction and have contributed to a better understanding of public policy in some developing countries.
The Personal Vote in Australian Federal Elections
Authors: Bean Clive
Published: December 2006

Although there has been little reliable evidence to date, the ‘personal vote’ for local Members of Parliament in Australian elections is generally thought to be negligible by political scientists. This article analyses new data from the 1987 Australian National Social Science Survey which demonstrate that the personal vote is a significant factor in federal lower house elections even when numerous other variables known to influence voting behaviour are controlled for. The data allow a calculation of the potential electoral effect of the personal vote which shows that it could be worth at least 3 per cent in some circumstances. The analysis tests for varying levels of personal voting in safe and marginal seats, Labor and coalition seats, urban and rural seats and according to the length of time the incumbent has been in office. Lastly, the electoral effects of the social background of local members are examined.
Leadership Selection Processes and Careers: A Comparison of Australian and Canadian Premiers
Authors: Carty R.K. , James Peter , Sharman Campbell
Published: December 2006

In a recent analysis of the role and office of premier in Australia, Sharman, Hughes and Tuffin demonstrate that its fundamental characteristics derive ‘not from interaction with the broader political context but from the inherent logic of [the] constitutional system’. In this paper we test this argument by comparing Australian state premiers with their Canadian provincial counterparts. If Sharman et al. are correct about the institutional imperatives of leadership careers, Canadians and Australians ought to have similar career patterns given the basic similarities between the two systems. Where differences exist, they may be explained by the selection processes used by parties to choose their leaders.
The Racialization of British Politics
Authors: Miles Robert
Published: December 2006

The idea of ‘race’ was an important part of the post-1945 political and ideological context within which migration from the New Commonwealth began. This is demonstrated by an analysis of an important policy document which provides a foundation upon which to evaluate the character and significance of racism in the subsequent political process. This evaluation contrasts and comments upon rival accounts of the impact of racism offered by writers who have analysed official government files from the period. The paper concludes by arguing against a conception of racism which presumes that it is a constant and unchanging ideological bloc within the British political process.
The French Constitutional Council: A Study in Institutional Change
Authors: Harrison Martin
Published: December 2006

Embodying a revolution in French constitutional law, in principle, the Constitutional Council initially seemed destined for a marginal role. However, a 1971 decision constitutionalizing the Preamble to the constitution and the 1974 revision extending access to 60 parliamentarians transformed its prospects. Initially devised to keep Parliament in its place, it is now a force to be reckoned with at every stage in the policy process but its constraints are felt mainly by the executive. Its jurisprudence displays a blend of audacity and prudence, combining ambitious developments in respect of human rights and national independence with cautious awareness of its vulnerability as a recent creation arbitrating controversial issues within a system traditionally antipathetic to ‘government by the judges’.
Defining Policing Policies and the Political Agenda
Authors: McLeay E. M.
Published: December 2006

Police officers influence the British policy process through their representative organizations. One of the main ways in which this is achieved is through police domination of the definition of certain sorts of issues at the central governmental level. This definition also occurs at the local level. Analysis of the location of the police as an interest group in the structure of the British state suggests how the politics of policing might be understood. Five issues relating to the police policies towards behaviour –street assaults, ‘rural public disorder’, rape, battered women and racially motivated assaults – illustrate how the police define issues and affect the policy process. The debates about police ‘politicization’ and accountability should be set in the context of the relationship between political structure, issue definition and the political agenda.
Beyond Marx—Weber: A Diversified and International Approach to the State
Authors: Redner Harry
Published: December 2006

Marx initiated the definition of the development of the modern state as a process of expropriation of powers. Weber took over this idea and added to it two more definitions of the state: as the holder of a monopoly of the means of violence and as an authority based on rational-legal legitimation. These three definitions of the state held up well until after the second world war, but since then new developments require that they be modified. Total expropriation of all powers did not take place. Instead a fusion of state and society ensued. The monopoly of violence has not proved usable and legitimation no longer matters so much in ensuring obedience. Furthermore, politics has moved to a new global international system featuring a number of different types of state: autonomous, community, client, satellite and independent states. The combination of these five types with the previously defined three factors of expropriation, militarization and legitimacy, constitutes a theoretical approach that can relate internal structural disposition to external global position of the state.
Knowledge, Consent and the Critique of Political Representation in Marsiglio of Padua's Defensor Pacis
Authors: Nederman Cary J.
Published: December 2006

Marsiglio of Padua's Defensor Pacis contains a sustained critique of crucial features of the theory and practice of political representation. Citizens are deemed to be vested with a basic knowledge of the public interest and are bound, under the terms of their civic identity, to consent individually to any legislative proposal which the community seeks to impose upon itself. The existence of such a duty to consent reflects for Marsiglio the way in which political society originally joined together into a corporate body. He contends that the very nature of representative government, in which responsibility for consent is conceded to quasi-independent representatives, is antagonistic to the foundations of a well-ordered political community.
The Political Implications of Redefining Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom
Authors: Heald David
Published: December 2006

This article examines the role, significance and consequences of decisions in the United Kingdom about the definition of public expenditure for planning and control purposes. Three major definitional issues are examined: the narrowing in 1977 of the UK public expenditure definition from a public-sector-wide definition to something much closer to the OECD's ‘general government’ definition; the treatment of the proceeds of asset sales as negative expenditure; and the introduction in the 1990 white paper of a planning total excluding local government expenditure. Three sets of consequences are examined: the eroding commitment to comprehensive coverage; the resulting policy distortions; and the erosion of conventions traditionally governing the relationships between central and local government. Grounds for unease with present developments are identified, notably the fragmentation of public expenditure documentation and the loss of information, the consequences of which will unfold as public expenditure faces a difficult period because of problems of macro-economic imbalance.
The Changing Agenda of Race Issues in Local Government: The Case of a London Borough
Authors: Saggar Shamit
Published: December 2006

The paper argues that race issues in local government are not composed of a single uniform agenda. Instead, the agenda varies between locality and over time. These agendas are the product of the interaction between the level of organizational coherence and the degree of racial explicitness of local politics and policy-making. The case of Ealing Borough demonstrates the extent to which the language and substance of race policy debate – the agenda of race – was transformed over the period analysed (1965–86). The traditional liberal framework for public policy discussion of race-related issues has served to shape – and constrain – the local politics of race in Britain. Despite a number of important setbacks and failures, the framework continues to exert considerable influence in the way in which it devolves race policy to local arenas, places heavy and unmanageable burdens on the voluntary sector, gives priority to racial harmony over racial equality goals, and denies legitimacy to those groups committed to racially explicit political strategies.
The Problematics of Policy-Making: Foreign and Security Issues in Israel's 1988 Election
Authors: Nisan Mordechai
Published: December 2006

Based on the assumption that foreign and defence policy grows out of the domestic political arena, this paper examines the 1988 elections in Israel with a particular focus on the territorial issue of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The two major parties, Likud and Labour, share certain fundamental views, and this fact contributed to the formation of a National Unity Government during 1984–88. Yet they also differ markedly in terms of ideological outlook and more specifically in policy towards peace-making with the Arabs and the future of the territories. The election campaign reflected the differences and incompatibilities between the two major parties, while the results indicated a political stalemate. The domestic party arena in Israel has not produced any clear long-term strategy regarding peace and the territories. This deadlock suggests incoherence in the Cabinet, the impotence of the legislature and the likelihood that external events alone can alter the political status quo.
The International Community's Claim to Rights in Brazilian Amazonia
Authors: McCleary Rachel M.
Published: December 2006

The ‘internationalization’ of Brazil's rainforest raises political and philosophical questions about the nature of rights and duties to preserve natural resources. The international community, particularly the United States, is arguing that it has a right to the preservation of the rainforest. As a corresponding duty, Brazil is being held uniquely responsible for the preservation of its Amazonian rainforest. Until the means (and burdens which attend them) can be equitably distributed among nations, it is unjust to obligate Brazil alone to preserve the rainforest while other countries, particularly the industrialized ones, hold the rights to enforce preservation.