bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Report of the Committee on Policy of the American Political Science Association for the Year 1935
Authors: Reed Thomas H.
Published: May 2006

So long a time has now elapsed since the creation of the first Committee on Policy that even old members of the Association need to be reminded of the order of events.

As a result of certain expressions used by Charles A. Beard in his presidential address at the St. Louis meeting of the Association in December, 1926, a Committee on Policy was set up for the purpose of making a survey of the field of political science and the opportunities and obligations of the Association. This committee, as originally appointed by President W. B. Munro in January, 1927, consisted of C. A. Beard (chairman), C. E. Merriam, F. A. Ogg, R. C. Brooks, W. F. Willoughby, and J. R. Hayden. The following May, Dr. Beard, though remaining a member of the Committee, resigned the chairmanship and was replaced in that position by Thomas H. Reed. The Committee applied to the Carnegie Corporation for aid in making the required study and received in December, 1927, a grant of $7,500. The Committee, with certain changes in membership, continued in existence until December, 1930.
State Constitutional Law in 1936–37
Authors: Grant J. A. C.
Published: May 2006

The invalidation and consequent abandonment of the N.I.R.A. did not bring to an end the trends of which it was, in fact, merely a manifestation rather than a cause. Section 7a had its precursors in the Railway Labor Act of 1926, the Norris Anti-Injunction Act of 1932, and similar state laws, and has been carried over in the National Labor Relations Act. The price maintenance provisions of the codes were the result of years of effort on the part of the American Fair Trade League to legalize resale price maintenance contracts. Today, various state Fair Trade Acts go much farther than the codes dared to go in establishing resale price maintenance even apart from privity of contract. Trade associations have continued their efforts to “rationalize” industry through the collection of statistics on capacity, production, sales, and prices, trusting that the courts will permit this to be done through a more liberal interpretation of the anti-trust laws. Pending further national legislation to be built upon the broader interpretation of the commerce power enunciated in the Labor Relations Act decisions, business efforts to set minimum prices have been carried on under a mantle of state and local legislation. Various trades and professions, desiring to carry forward their efforts to standardize minimum working conditions and professional practices in their fields, have also sought the aid of the states and of their local governments. Consequently, much of the work of the state courts during the year 1936–37 concerned the validity of these undertakings. There was also the normal run of cases in the various fields of state constitutional law. As last year (see this Review, Aug., 1936, pp. 692–712), the decisions will be discussed under the following headings: (1) separation and delegation of powers; (2) inter-governmental relations; (3) individual rights: procedural; (4) individual rights: substantive; and (5) fiscal powers. However, the nature of the material has necessitated a complete rearrangement of the subject-matter within each heading.
Unemployment Assistance in Great Britain
Authors: Stafford Paul Tutt
Published: May 2006

The British Unemployment Assistance Act of 1934 is unquestionably the most important legislative innovation in the field of public poor relief since the passage of the Elizabethan poor laws. It represents the final fruition of the movement for the “break-up” of the old poor law system, for by its provision the “break-up” is made virtually complete. In sweeping terms, it adopts the principle of national responsibility for the care of the nation's ablebodied poor, and establishes for the administration of the duties thereby thrust upon the national government a vast new machinery directly operated from Whitehall. Local responsibility for a major portion of a basic governmental function is thus completely wiped out, and the old poor law stands stripped of its essential substance and significance, a mere shell of the former system out of which grew the modern institutions of English local government.
The Control of War Preparations in the United States
Authors: Swisher Carl Brent
Published: May 2006

A devastating war crisis is forcing government officials and political scientists to re-examine the efforts of the United States in 1917 and 1918 to adjust a peace-time democratic governmental establishment to the efficient conduct of war activities. That experience, until recently deemed an aberration in American history, is immediately relevant to the current program of national defense. Certain of the vital political problems of the war years are discussed in the following pages for the light which they shed on the present crisis. The discussion centers around the creation and control of emergency agencies for the performance of war functions. A prominent characteristic of governmental behavior was competition for power between the President and Congress, with victory usually in the hands of the President. Closely allied characteristics were the steady growth in the centralization of power as experience in the handling of war preparations was developed, and a progressive decline in the unwillingness of Congress to permit drastic interference with rights of liberty and property. The records show a tremendous amount of initial chaos. Superficially, at least, it seems that the experience of the war years has not yet been absorbed by those now responsible for the conduct of the government and that, whether or not it is necessary, much of the fumbling of 1917 and 1918 is now in process of repetition.
Some New Light on the Growth of Parliamentary Sovereignty: Wimbish versus Taillebois
Authors: Lampson Edward T.
Published: May 2006

It is almost as difficult to read the thoughts of the past from the scattered dicta of the sixteenth century law books as to reconstruct a dinosaur from the fragments of a skeleton; yet many of these early cases illuminate important changes in legal and political affairs. The case of Wimbish v. Taillebois is one of particular interest because of Chief Justice Montague's opinion, which casts some light upon a little known phase of the constitutional development by which the property rights of the individual were brought under the control of the state. In the early Middle Ages, the power of the king over private rights was weak; the notion that the subject's rights were inviolate was strong. During the Middle Ages, royal authority and parliamentary authority grew extensively, and by the sixteenth century king in parliament was able to seize church lands and transfer property rights by statute. Montague justified such transfers of property from one individual to another by applying the mediaeval theory of taxation by consent to out-and-out transfers of property by Parliament. Such a doctrine increased the power of Parliament greatly by placing property rights directly under its legislative authority. It therefore marks an important step in the growth of the theory of parliamentary sovereignty.
“Government,” “Law,” and the Separation of Powers
Authors: Cole Kenneth C.
Published: May 2006

The continued growth of administrative agencies exercising legislative and judicial (or, if one prefers, “quasi-legislative” and “quasi-judicial”) powers furnishes a constant inducement to reevaluate the separation of powers theory. In a general way, the theory is admittedly hostile to this development as involving an inordinate concentration of power in the executive. Accordingly, we are presented with the problem of whether governmental practice should be accomodated to the theory or the theory revised to fit practice.

Of course the pressure of circumstance has already made a considerable impression on doctrinal exposition. Thus it is not seriously contended that the delegation ofanyrule-making power to administrative agencies is necessarily a delegation of legislative power within the meaning of the doctrine. Nor is it seriously contended that the right of such agencies to conduct a trial and come to a formal judgment thereupon is necessarily a delegation of judicial power—again within the meaning of the doctrine.
Peace Problems of Today and Yesterday
Authors: Wright Quincy
Published: May 2006

The wars which are now drawing to a close can be compared to the Thirty Years War (1618–48), the War of the Spanish Succession, which really began in 1688 and lasted until 1713, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1789–1815). Each of these wars lasted thirty years or slightly less, and if we begin the present war in 1914, it already has become a fourth thirty-years war.

All of these wars left problems which had aspects in common. In all, there was the problem of returning to the ways of peace, of settling boundaries and governments, of reconstruction, and of maintaining a stable international order. But in each successive war the area involved was larger, the number of participants in the peace was greater, their economic relationships were more pervasive, and a more intensive international political organization was attempted.

At Westphalia in 1648, the effort was rather to establish the independence of states than to organize their interdependence. The ancient structure of the Holy Roman Empire and the universal spiritual authority of the Papacy were crumbling. The national independence of Switzerland and of the Netherlands and the virtual independence of the states of Germany were recognized. The notion of the sovereign territorial state, so different from the conception of a feudal hierarchy which had dominated medieval thinking, took root in men's minds and was promoted by the administration of efficient governments beginning to realize the possibilities of building power upon national sentiment.
The Senate Judiciary Committee: Qualifications of Members
Authors: Farrelly David G.
Published: May 2006

In many of our modern industries, aptitude tests are given to new employees in order to determine the type of position for which each worker is best fitted. Unfortunately, in legislative bodies committee assignments are dependent upon several factors, only one of which is specialized ability. To serve the public best, however, no one can truthfully deny that individual competence ought to be the basic reason for placing a legislator on the committee which can make the most advantageous use of his particular training and experience. Putting an international lawyer on an agriculture and forestry committee would be a sheer waste of talent. With these thoughts in mind, the Senate Judiciary Committee has been studied for the purpose of determining the qualifications of the 219 men who have been members of this body since it was established in 1816.
Federal Administration of Rural Electrification
Authors: Dow E. F.
Published: May 2006

Origin. The Rural Electrification Administration began as one of the “temporary” and “emergency” units in Roosevelt's collection of alphabetical agencies under executive order 7037 of May 11, 1935. The expressed purpose of the President was to promote the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in rural areas. Morris L. Cooke, noted management engineer who had served as a member of the Power Authority of New York when Roosevelt was governor, was chosen administrator. Money for loans to coöperatives, public bodies, and private companies was made available from relief funds, with the stipulation that borrowers must use at least 90 per cent relief labor in construction work. All money was to be repaid; no part of the federal funds was to be used for grants or subsidies.
Criteria for Evaluating the Effectiveness of State Government
Authors: Graves W. Brooke
Published: May 2006

For some time, students of state government and state administration have been puzzled, and perhaps somewhat dismayed, at their inability to measure objectively the accomplishments of the governments of the several states. The same general problem was presented from another angle when, at a round table held in connection with the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Chicago in December, 1936, the attempt was made to measure objectively the results of the administrative reorganization code movement. If standards of achievement could be agreed upon, it might be possible for different investigators, working independently, to examine the same states with similar or comparable results. It should, likewise, be possible to compare the government of a given state before and after the adoption of a code providing for administrative reorganization, and to compare with some degree of accuracy the governments of states of similar size, population, industrial characteristics, etc.
The Next Decade in Political Science Teaching
Authors: Laves Walter H. C.
Published: May 2006

This paper has been prepared primarily for the purpose of suggesting certain aspects of the teaching problem in political science upon which our attention at this round table may be focused with profit. At the same time, I believe that the issues raised are of more than passing concern and should be considered as among the most important for political scientists during the coming decade. Furthermore, although this round table discussion has been limited to the basic course in political science, I believe that the time has come for appraisal of the entire undergraduate political science curriculum. Such an appraisal should concern itself with the content of our courses (which has been growing like Topsy) and the quality of teaching (which has traditionally been ignored on the ground that the professional educators are alone concerned with teaching methods).

Turning now to the specific subject of this round table, I believe that any discussion of the basic course in political science must concern itself with the following questions: (1) the objective of the course; (2) the materials most conducive to the attainment of that objective; (3) the methods most suitable in the organization and presentation of these materials; and (4) the personnel for teaching the basic course. I should like to make certain brief observations in regard to each of these questions.
Special Interim Commissions in the Indiana Legislative Process
Authors: Sikes Pressly S.
Published: May 2006

Between 1920 and 1940, the General Assembly of Indiana through resolution or act authorized no less than twenty-four special interim studies of legislative problems. In addition to these, the governor on eight different occasions set up commissions to study and report on matters of legislative concern. Diligent search has failed to disclose any evidence of activity on the part of a fourth of these commissions, but the others turned in reports averaging one hundred pages in length and at an average cost of $4,000.
Andreas Fricius Modrevius—A Polish Political Theorist of the Sixteenth Century
Authors: Ulam Adam
Published: May 2006

It has been said that political thought of the sixteenth century can be classified into two types—an attempt to find a juristic basis for the raison d'état exemplified in the work of Bodin, and the antithetic point of view found in the Vindiciae and concerned with the establishment of abstract right.

There is, however, yet another trend of political thought observable at the time—a political theory which combines the two trends of political thought mentioned above, but which goes beyond the “long research into the terms of political obedience,” in its attempt at a synthetic view of the state and society. And one of the best expressions of this way of thinking is found in the writings of Andreas Fricius Modrevius (Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski), the most notable political author of sixteenth-century Poland.

The great significance of Fricius' writings to a modern student lies largely in the way in which they mirror the thought of the Renaissance and the Reformation, and in the successful combination that Fricius achieves of a predominantly Aristotelian analysis of the state with a Christian idealism which he imparts to his discussion of a “good state” and its ends. His ability to combine the best features of the ancient political thought and to adapt them to the realities of sixteenth-century Europe brought Fricius to the attention of such writers as Bodin, Althusius, and Grotius.
The Elements of Democracy
Authors: Lewis John D.
Published: May 2006

“As for democracy, why should we discuss acknowledged madness?” Today numerous clever writers and some serious students are asking the same question that Alcibiades asked some twenty-three centures ago. Yet at the very time when democracy is attacked from all sides, and when Mussolini can speak of trampling on the putrid corpse of liberty, Mussolini himself has the temerity to proclaim that Italian Fascism is the realization of “true democracy.” The Nazis, speaking through Herr Goebbels, present the National Socialist state as “the most ennobled form of a modern democratic state.” And, not to be outdone, Stalin announces that the Soviet constitution of 1936 is “the only constitution that is democratic to the limit.” Two points, then, appear very clear at the outset. First, a theoretical defense of democracy is made more complicated by the unscrupulous license with which the enemies and critics of democracy use the term; and second, “democracy” as a vague, meaningless symbol still has a propaganda value for those who repudiate or disdain any real meaning that the symbol may have.

It is not my purpose to examine in detail the criticisms of democracy, but rather to indicate which of the numerous criticisms are relevant to a discussion of democracy. What is it that is under attack? Is it the basic assumptions of democratic theory, or the machinery of democratic government, or both? To put such a question means, of course, to reopen the old question: What are the essential elements of democratic theory?

Consent is an essential element of democratic theory, but not a distinguishing element. The important test is not whether a major portion of the adult population accepts or approves a government or its policies, but the manner in which this consent is secured. Both Napoleon I and Napoleon III secured the consent of the French people to their imperial dictatorships, and Hitler secured the formal consent of the German people to his puppet parliament and to his own dictatorship. Schuschnigg was about to secure the consent of the Austrian people to the continuance of a non-Nazi, clerical, native dictatorship, but instead Hitler secured the consent of the Austrian people to a Nazi dictatorship.
Direct Primary Legislation, 1936–1939
Authors: Overacker Louise
Published: May 2006

The passage of mandatory, state-wide, direct primary laws in Utah and New Mexico within the last four years leaves only two states which retain the convention method of making nominations for all state offices.

The Utah act of 1937 applies to all national, state, and local officers. Any party which polled two per cent of the total vote cast for representative in Congress at the last election, or which files a petition signed by at least 500 qualified electors, comes within its scope. The second Tuesday of September is fixed as the date of the primary, with a second, or “runoff,” primary in those cases in which no candidate receives a majority in the first primary. The primary is open, candidates for the nominations of all parties appearing in party columns on a “blanket” ballot with perforations between the columns. After marking his ballot, the voter detaches the used portion and deposits it in the ballot box. A separate box is provided for unused portions. Names may be placed upon the ballot by petition or declaration of candidacy, and are rotated. State committees and delegates to the national conventions are chosen at state conventions held on or before the last Saturday in June. The platform is drafted by a second convention meeting in September.
Conflict, Consensus, Confirmed Trends, and Open Choices
Authors: Macmahon Arthur W.
Published: May 2006

A little over a century ago, De Tocqueville ended the first volume of Democracy in America with the flashing paragraph which identified two rising nations destined to become transcendent centers of power. The prescience of that ending was matched by the closing sentence of the second volume: “The nations of our time cannot prevent the conditions of men from becoming equal, but it depends upon themselves whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or freedom, to knowledge or barbarism, to prosperity or wretchedness.” This sentence is more than a frame of the age, even to the hour. It hints at a theory of history; it is a clue to the relation of trends and choices.

Each major trend, holding such momentous alternatives, is itself the cumulative outcome of choices. The main alternatives, likewise, result from the interaction of fresh ideas with tradition, available resources, and potential techniques. Each new choice sets in motion its limited train of consequences, to be worked out in a succession of adaptive changes. In this restricted sense, man is intermittently the captive of his own discoveries. But spontaneity survives amid the accommodating changes launched by earlier acts of creation. Recurrently, as well as originally and fundamentally, ideas are the determinants.
Political Science and the Social Studies
Authors: White Howard
Published: May 2006

This report is concerned with the contribution of political science to the instructional needs of those who are preparing to teach, and of those now teaching, the social studies in elementary and secondary schools. How can political scientists in colleges and universities maximize the contribution which they, as specialists in one large field of human knowledge, can make to enrich the teaching of the social studies? Before offering suggestions which, if applied generally, should provide at least a partial answer to the question, the Committee on the Social Studies states two assumptions. First, most political scientists can do more than they have done in the past. Second, reverse lend-lease is anticipated. Political scientists have much to learn from teachers of the social studies as to what methods are effective in enabling youth to learn the ways of democracy and what types of material are most useful in the learning process. The recommendations in this report are presented in the hope that coöperation between the two groups will become more extensive and regular. The recommendations are divided into four classes, according to the incidence of responsibility for carrying them into effect.
Recent Developments in Public Personnel Administration
Authors: Stout Hiram M.
Published: May 2006

The most significant development of recent years in the field of public personnel administration in the United States is the rapid spread of the merit system. After receiving lip service for decades, the merit system has made more gains in the last three years than at any previous time since the passage of the Pendleton Act by Congress in 1883. Tangible proofs of this progress are to be found in the state and municipal civil service systems which have been established and in the personnel developments of 1938 and 1939 in the federal government.
County and Township Government in 1943
Authors: Snider Clyde P.
Published: May 2006

The future of local government in the United States is likely to depend in no inconsiderable degree upon the extent to which the local units make a vital contribution toward winning the present war and solving the problems arising therefrom. It is therefore of special significance that many of the developments occurring in county and township government during 1943 were related directly or indirectly to the war and postwar problems. At the same time, progress continued along various lines which had become well established prior to the war. Public interest in rural local government was evidenced both by the large amount of state legislation enacted with reference thereto and by local action taken under legislative authority. Developments during the year will be summarized under the following headings: (1) areas; (2) organization and personnel; (3) functions; (4) finance; (5) optional forms of government; (6) intergovernmental relations; and (7) research and experimentation.

New Areas. State legislatures continued to enact statutes establishing or authorizing the establishment of local ad hoc authorities for various purposes. Wyoming established each organized county of the state as a predatory animal district, under the control of a district board, for the purpose of paying bounties for the killing of animals that prey upon domestic livestock, poultry, and wild game. General laws authorized the organization of weed-control districts in South Dakota, public library districts in Illinois, cemetery districts in Montana, and county water authorities in California. Georgia's constitution was amended to empower the governing authorities of Bibb county to establish and administer, within the county and outside the city of Macon, special districts for sanitation purposes, garbage removal and disposal, fire prevention, police protection, drainage, road building and improvement, and any other public services and facilities customarily afforded by municipalities of the state.
Political Science 1 and Political Indoctrination
Authors: Rossiter Clinton L.
Published: May 2006

The departments of political science in America's colleges and universities are now numbered in the hundreds, their students in the tens of thousands. The variety of these departments is bewildering, differing as they do in size, curriculum, teaching methods, political complexion, aspirations, and even in name. It is no easy matter to discover what the fifty-man faculty in political science at Columbia and the one-man department of government at a California junior college have in common; yet one thing in common they certainly do have: the introductory course, and the complex problem which it presents.

That the introductory course does present a major problem to departments of political science everywhere was clearly acknowledged by the program committee of the 1947 meeting of the American Political Science Association, when it scheduled a panel entitled “The Beginning Course in Political Science.” The problem was further acknowledged by the panel itself; hardly a person of the many who took part in its proceedings, whether seated at the round-table or holding forth extemporaneously from the audience, failed to show some degree of candid dissatisfaction with the introductory course as presently conducted at his institution. Rare indeed is the department of political science which is willing to let its introductory course ride along through 1948 in the exact shape it assumed through 1947. The urge for improvement is nation-wide, and several prominent departments have gone so far as to relieve instructors of part of their normal teaching burden and commission them to work out definite programs of radical revision.
Some Aspects of Statelessness Since World War I
Authors: Carey Jane Perry Clark
Published: May 2006

Statelessness, in its technical sense, is the result of denationalization by the country of origin of a person who has acquired no citizenship elsewhere. A stateless person is also referred to as staatenlos, apatride. Protection and assistance may be withdrawn by the country of a person's origin without juridical suppression of that person's nationality. Such a person outside his own country, though not fully denationalized, is in a position in some measure akin to that of the stateless, as neither has the protection of any government.

Although many refugees are stateless, statelessness is not the essential quality of a refugee, who is defined in accepted international usage as a person who for political reasons has been driven from his country of origin, or who fears the political consequences of his return. He may be stateless, or, although not technically denationalized, may have lost the protection of his government by refusing to return home when the possibility was presented. As a person without governmental protection, he loses the advantages of international rights which depend for enforcement on the action of his home government. Furthermore, an alien who is not a national of any state is denied many of the privileges of a citizen, granted reciprocally through treaties. Such treaties give to the citizens of one state privileges in other states party to the treaties, including the right to work, the benefits of social insurance (such as workmen's compensation laws), and the right to education.
Denaturalization on the Ground of Disloyalty
Authors: Preuss Lawrence
Published: May 2006

The experience of recent years has shown that espionage, sabotage, and subversive propaganda have everywhere been preliminary to, and an integral part of, the program of Axis military aggression. That such activity constituted a threat of increasing gravity to the United States was recognized, even prior to our entry into the present war, by the enactment of legislation designed to strengthen our defenses against propagandist and subversive activities of foreign agents and organizations under foreign control, to tighten up the surveillance of aliens, and to make more rigid the requisites for naturalization. Since the United States became an active belligerent, additional measures have been adopted for the control of alien enemies and nationals of Axis origin.
The Place of Machiavelli in the History of Political Thought
Authors: McCoy Charles N. R.
Published: May 2006

The chief reason for the lack of intelligibility in a course in the history of political thought is the absence of any standard by which the great writers in the field may justly be compared. The usual course in the history of political thought is thoroughly historical and scrupulously indifferent to philosophical analysis; at best, a semblance of comparative analysis is achieved by simply telling the student that different needs of different periods suggest different and equally valid theoretical constructions. The question of natural law, for example, is handled in something like the following fashion. The Aristotelian notion of natural law is no sooner inadequately in the mind of the student than it fails to survive the downfall of the Greek city states. The student is told that Aristotle's notion of natural law restricted his vision and blinded him to the inevitable growth of the empire of Philip, his own student. The Stoics, whose views were perfected by Cicero, held to a notion of natural law much more in keeping with the needs of a world civilization. The Church adopted the Stoic conception of natural law. Subsequently, after the writings of Aristotle had been discovered, St. Thomas Aquinas wedded natural law to the law of the Church. The Renaissance and Reformation liberated men's minds from the shackles of Mediaeval Scholasticism. The concept of natural law came gradually to be abandoned; it is already repudiated in the writings of William of Occam and Marsilius of Padua, and its disappearance is complete in Machiavelli. Accustomed to the tradition of 1066 and All That, the student gathers that this disappearance was “a good thing.” In the eighteenth century, there is a revival of natural law.
The Army's Civil Affairs Training Program
Authors: Hyneman Charles S.
Published: May 2006

A wartime training program of interest to political scientists and of possible significance for postwar educational policy is the Army's Civil Affairs Training Program. This training program prepares officers for military government service in occupied territory, and is an extension of the training instituted at Charlottesville, Virginia, in the spring of 1942. The School of Military Government is an Army post located on the campus of the University of Virginia. It was originally expected to train a limited number of officers for positions in civil affairs headquarters staff, but the capacity of the School was later expanded and its graduates actually serve in either staff or field positions.

It soon became apparent that the demand for officers trained for civil affairs work would run far beyond the capacity of the School of Military Government. As a consequence, it was decided to utilize a number of universities in the training, and the Civil Affairs Training Program (CATP) was established. Like the School of Military Government, already in existence, this program was placed under the control of the Provost Marshal General.
Pathological Problems in Politics
Authors: Spencer Henry Russell
Published: May 2006

In one of Hans Andersen's fairy-tales, the emperor was exhibiting himself in splendid new raiment. But it was a hoax: the swindling tailors had provided no clothes at all; they had succeeded by black magic in imposing a belief that whoever should fail to see and adore the imperial robes was thereby betraying his own stupidity and unworthiness. All, all were taken in, by their fear and ambition, until a little child, ignoring the beauty of holiness, the sacredness of majesty, the inviolability of sovereignty, blurted out the simple truth—”the emperor is entirely without robes.” So I invite you to look with fearless candor at sundry sacred cows. They may be nothing but cunning contraptions of lath and plaster and camouflage paint. Let us candidly and naively say what we see.

As we look back 45 years to the origin of our Association, there are striking changes to be observed. The atom, then regarded as the ultimate indissoluble unit, has turned out to be complex like a solar system; its fission, whether for useful power or for the destruction of us all, has become a defiant challenge to our generation, the $64 question: Has our inventiveness in engines of destruction perilously outdistanced our power of moral growth?

Our kind of scientist observes that in our parlous political position new pathological factors are coming to light, symptoms that call for clear identification, conditions that require treatment if one is to hope for amelioration of health, peradventure for cure. We see about us not only blood, sweat, and tears—they might well inspire us to unwonted effort and more effective toil—but also corruption, gangrene.
The “Great Issues” Course at Dartmouth College
Authors: Wilson Arthur M.
Published: May 2006

Dartmouth's new required course for seniors, called “Great Issues,” is avowedly an exercise in training for more effective citizenship. Its twofold purpose is to arouse in students a greater sense of public-mindedness and to make them more competent in the use and evaluation of the common sources of public information. Thus the Great Issues course, dealing with college students at the moment of their greatest undergraduate maturity, is pointed toward the problems of citizenship which beset a person in his adult years, just as it is also pointed toward the problems of adult education. It might, therefore, be described as an attempt to facilitate the transition from the methods of undergraduate instruction to the methods which adult citizens have to rely upon in securing the information necessary for making well-informed decisions.

The principal textbook in the course is the daily and Sunday editions of either the New York Times or the New York Herald Tribune, according to the students choice. Other reading assignments are such official or semi-official publications as the Acheson-Lilienthal report, the Supreme Court decision and minority opinion in Everson v. The Board of Education of the Township of Ewing, and To Secure These Rights. Students are required also to read in entirety designated numbers of such magazines as the Atlantic, Harper's, Saturday Review of Literature, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Nation, and Foreign Affairs, as well as a few particularly apposite current books.
Law as an Objective Political Concept
Authors: Field G. Lowell
Published: May 2006

The Need for Factually Defined Concepts. Most political utterance is necessarily normative in import since it occurs in the process of motivating human behavior. Popularly employed political concepts, appropriately, are frequently of the ideal type in that they tend to denote an hypothetical situation toward conformance with which actual human institutions are being impelled. Ask any student to define a state or a government and he is almost certain to bring in some such notion as “operation in the public interest,” which might or might not be judged applicable to an actual situation. It is safe to say that ninety per cent of the time such concepts as state, government, court, law, administration, political party, and many others are used in this normative sense, not only popularly but in learned circles.

Without desiring the exclusion of the normative from the social sciences, the writer believes that rigid conceptual clarity in distinguishing norm and fact is necessary for the progress of these disciplines. To attain this goal, the technical requisite is a system of concepts having an understood reference of a purely factual character. The absence of such factually defined concepts is noteworthy in political science, and largely unrecognized. Although most of our studies are factual in nature and the intended reference of concepts is usually factual, definition is largely subconscious and when brought to the surface is likely to have normative form, particularly a form borrowed from legal norms.

True definition is appropriate in such disciplines as logic and mathematics and in physics, which has attained since the seventeenth century to the explanation of phenomena by hypothetical systems employing purely postulated entities like electrons and atoms. A set of pure definitions gives postulates from which theorems are derived by rigid deduction. What is put into the definitions comes out in the theorems.
State Constitutional Law in 1945–46
Authors: Tenbroek Jacobus , Graham Howard Jay
Published: May 2006

The end of the momentous year symbolized by the physical scientists' entrance into national politics and political scientists' introduction to nuclear physics finds state appellate courts focusing on problems of business and reconversion; professionally critical, if not apprehensive, of the course taken by their superior in Washington; dubious of the behavior of organized labor, yet divided upon both the desirability of judicial discipline and the proper means of administering it; maintaining their separate, often irreconcilable, views on regulation of business and agriculture; above all, enjoying, like their superiors and predecessors, the historic, self-imposed duty of fitting constitutional garments to institutional girth.

How to constrict the swollen national waistline without risking grave internal pressures taxes ingenuity to the utmost. On the whole, a prudent realism still is evident in dealing with problems of price control. The restlessness and doubts noted last year, however, have persisted and find freer expression. Paradoxically, state enforcement of federal penalties is generally sustained, despite ancient but dissolving dogmas to the contrary; whereas coöperative state or municipal action designed to reinforce and supplement the Emergency Price Control Act has suffered serious reverses.
The Political Philosophy of Young Charles A. Beard
Authors: Borning Bernard C.
Published: May 2006

In 1934, Harold J. Laski wrote of Charles A. Beard: “It is true that he has formulated no consistent or systematic philosophy of politics; none has been formulated in the America of our time. But it is clear that the day for such a formulation is rapidly approaching. When it comes, I believe it will be found that no one has made a more solid contribution than Charles Beard to the elements from which it will have to be fashioned.”

It is likely that most Americans of academic bent, whether they have actually read the book or not, are aware of the stir once created by An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. Certainly they could hardly have avoided some part of that flood of articles, books, and reviews which for decades has poured from the pen of Beard. Whether or not his writings have contributed to the building of an American “philosophy of politics,” it seems obvious that college youth in unknown number, scholars, and Americans in many walks of life must in some degree have been influenced by Beard in various subtle or indirect ways. The very bulk and range of his writings make it highly probable. For a check of the card catalog in a large university library, plus an examination of the Library of Congress bibliography and a few other sources, yields a total of about sixty first-edition volumes with Beard's name attached as author, co-author, or editor.
American Political Thought and the American Revolution
Authors: Hartz Louis
Published: May 2006

“The great advantage of the American,” Tocqueville once wrote, “is that he has arrived at a state of democracy without having to endure a democratic revolution….” Fundamental as this insight is, we have not remembered Tocqueville for it, and the reason is rather difficult to explain. Perhaps it is because, fearing revolution in the present, we like to think of it in the past, and we are reluctant to concede that its romance has been missing from our lives. Perhaps it is because the plain evidence of the American revolution of 1776, especially the evidence of its social impact that our newer historians have collected, has made the comment of Tocqueville seem thoroughly enigmatic. But in the last analysis, of course, the question of its validity is a question of perspective. Tocqueville was writing with the great revolutions of Europe in mind, and from that point of view the outstanding thing about the American effort of 1776 was bound to be, not the freedom to which it led, but the established feudal structure it did not have to destroy. He was writing too, as no French liberal of the nineteenth century could fail to write, with the shattered hopes of the Enlightenment in mind. The American revolution had been one of the greatest of them all, a precedent constantly appealed to in 1793.
Some Comparative Experience in Adjusting Local Units and Areas
Authors: Weidner Edward W.
Published: May 2006

The problem of adjusting the units and areas of local government to meet changing conditions seems to be a universal one. It involves not only the question of procedure, but also the quest of the ideal. With the exception of school districts, extensive experimentation has not been forthcoming in the United States; other English-speaking countries have been far more concerned with local units and areas.

The present paper deals with the experiences of four central governments—England and Wales, New Zealand, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. None of them has found the ideal system. All have evolved various successful techniques to adjust local units and areas from time to time.

I

Widespread interest in reorganizing the areas and units of local government in England and Wales has been evident since before 1944. During the period 1943 to 1945, numerous individuals and groups came forward with plans for reform, among them the Labor party, the Liberal party, the Liberal National Committee, the National Association of Local Government Officers, the Association of Municipal Corporations, the County Councils Association, and the Urban and Rural Districts Associations. Proposals by the two Liberal groups, the counties, and the urban and rural districts involved only minor variations from the existing local government structure. As a result, most interest was focused upon the NALGO and AMC reports calling for varying plans of single all-purpose authorities and on Labor's proposal for a two-tier structure.
Woodrow Wilson as Legislative Leader and Administrator
Authors: Macmahon Arthur W.
Published: May 2006

A portrayal of Woodrow Wilson's legislative leadership and administive methods has more uses than as a reminder of achievements durably impressive in themselves. His practice partly answered his own unresolved thinking about the presidency; in turn it implied theories that serve as foils in looking at later developments. The centennial of Wilson's birth is a fitting time to recount the story drawing on memoirs that accumulated after his death. The emphasis may well be on domestic policy in view of the greater attention that has been given to Wilson's role in war and peace.

First we must examine the prior development of Wilson's thinking about the presidency. Our concern is the working conception of the office of American elected chief executives that he had come to hold by the time of his full entrance into public life.

As a college senior Wilson wrote on “Cabinet Government in the United States.” He deplored, as real cause of solicitude and doubt, “the absorption of all power by a legislature which is practically irresponsible for its acts.”
Canadian Public Enterprise: A Character Study
Authors: Musolf Lloyd D.
Published: May 2006

Were evidence to be drawn only from very recent American experience, a strong case could be made for the notion that the status of business enterprise owned and operated by the government tends to be rather anomalous in a “free enterprise” country. Whatever may be said about the existence of a “mixed economy” in the United States, the philosophy of the Eisenhower Administration is plainly one which casts doubt on the legitimacy of public enterprise.

With American experience in mind, this article attempts to characterize the status of public enterprise in Canada, a country whose economic system is also based on private enterprise. In the Canadian “free enterprise” garden, how should the public enterprise plant be described—as a creeper vine, a hothouse flower, or a hardy but unspectacular perennial? To what extent has it affected its surroundings and in turn been affected by them? The study proceeds on the assumption that specific examples of public enterprise furnish the best basis for generalization about its character. The examples are confined to the national government in order to keep the study within manageable limits and to facilitate reference to American experience (although no extensive comparison is intended).
Soviet Policy Toward National Communism: The Limits of Diversity
Authors: Morris Bernard
Published: May 2006

On one thing the Soviet and Yugoslav Communists agree: “national communism” is a contradiction in terms. “The very expression ‘national communism’,” say the Soviet theoreticians, “is a logical absurdity. By itself communism is really international and it cannot be conceived otherwise.” Tito was just as emphatic when he told New York Times commentator, C. L. Sulzberger, that “national communism doesn't exist. Yugoslav Communists too are internationalists.”

That the Soviet and Yugoslav positions appear to agree on this point is no accident. Marxist theory has never acknowledged a genuine alternative to socialism or capitalism, and socialism was a profoundly international idea. But in its effort to abolish national strife, create a world-wide economic and social order, and establish political and social internationalism, the socialist movement had to start within the framework of the nation-state. In practice, therefore, socialism was mainly a national affair. The gulf between the necessary national starting point of the socialist movement and its international ideal was, to put it mildly, considerable. Though the international working class solidarity of the Communist Manifesto has been emptied of plausibility by the events of the last hundred years—not least of all by the abandonment in practice of internationalism in 1914 by the socialist movement—internationalism is a fetish to which even the right-wing socialist makes his obeisance.