bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Political Developments in Italy
Authors: Spencer Henry R.
Published: May 2006

“Italian unification” is an old phrase, today acquiring new meaning. Whatever Garibaldi would have thought of D'Annunzian and Fascist squadrism, however Cavour would have viewed the modern cult of Machiavelli, avowed by Mussolini, one may be sure that Mazzini would have been shocked at the chauvinist absolutism now proudly boasted by the Fascist régime: absolutism in the sense of an executive guided by its own intuitions and conscience, free from political criticism or parliamentary control; absolutism also in a sense for which English words are wanting, except as we boldly transliterate, and hope that “intransigence,” “totalitarianism,” will be understood to mean an all-inclusive hundredpercentedness. Italy is called by Mussolini “monolithic,” all of one piece, tolerating anti-Fascist criticism no more than other states tolerate treason; all in and for Fascism, nothing against Fascism. Indeed, Fascism, without ceasing to be a party, has become the state. For parties in Edmund Burke's sense there is supposed to be no more need than for the factions Washington abhorred. Opposition such as is normal in the Cavourian scheme of parliamentary government—responsible critics, loyal and ready to take their turn in governing—is superfluous, a mere obstacle or obstruction to efficiency. None is permitted—in parliament, in press, in platform, or even in theory.

What has just been said is presented, not by way of judging, but only of summarizing, the attitude firmly (courageously or arrogantly, according to the observer's prejudices) maintained by the powers that be in Italy today. The recent months have seen several important steps taken in the direction of institutional realization of this view.
The Bicameral System in State Legislation
Authors: Barnett James D.
Published: May 2006

The submission of proposals for the abolition of the state senate to the people of Oregon at the two preceding general elections is occasion for a summary of considerations in reference to the bicameral system of legislation.

The bicameral system has been so long and so widely prevalent that until very recently its “necessity” has been almost universally regarded as “a demonstrated truth.” The British legislature, “the mother of parliaments,” is a development from the assembly of “estates.” Five distinct “estates” were present in the “Model Parliament” of 1295, but through the consolidation of interests, the organization of two legislative chambers, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, was soon evolved. The origin of the bicameral system was thus “not owing to any conviction that two houses would work better than either one or three, but was a matter of sheer accident,” and was not “the invention of any clever constitution-maker.” The bicameral system of legislation, generally based upon English precedent, has usually followed the extension of constitutional government, and at present most national legislatures consist of two chambers.
The Land Department as an Administrative Tribunal
Authors: Pierce Charles R.
Published: May 2006

If, for the moment, we can conceive of Uncle Sam as being Andrew Carnegie, of Carnegie's millions as unimproved real estate, and of Carnegie's intention to die poor, as Uncle Sam's liberal land policy, we can perhaps best picture to ourselves the public land administration in the United States in a nutshell. The government, like Carnegie, is unloading its vast wealth in a manner calculated to do the most good, and it is guarding itself continuously, although often futilely, from being imposed upon and cheated. The ownership of the public domain by the United States is of the highest possible title. There is no one to dispute the government's absolute ownership of it. There are no taxes to pay. The government is subject to no obligation to dispose of its land. It can keep or dispose of the land as it chooses.

In 1789 the United States government started as owner of practically all of the Northwest Territory. Later it acquired, what some geographers call the Southwest Territory, by further cession from the States. By purchase, discovery, annexation and conquest the United States acquired further holdings, so that with the exception of Texas and private holdings the government's fee simple title in the public domain extended from the thirteen colonies to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of Florida to the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans.
Organization and Procedure of the Peace Conference
Authors: Fenwick Charles G.
Published: May 2006

The difficulty of threading one's way through the intricacies of the organization of the Peace Conference is due chiefly to the fact that the conference is from one point of view a continuation of various interallied conferences and councils created for the prosecution of the war. In some cases the functions of these bodies have apparently been taken over by the conference, and in other cases the preëxisting councils and commissions have continued in operation as interallied agencies distinct from the organization of the conference. A brief review of the most important of these agencies will be of assistance, therefore, in making clear the origin and special functions of the conference.

The Supreme War Council was created by an agreement between Great Britain, France and Italy at a meeting held at Rapallo, Italy, in the first week of November, 1917. It was composed of the prime ministers and a member of the governments of each of the great powers fighting on the western front. Its purpose was to watch over the general conduct of the war and prepare recommendations for the decision of the governments. It was to be assisted by a permanent central military committee, consisting of Generals Foch, Wilson and Cadorna, but the decisions of these technical advisers were merely to be the basis of recommendations from the War Council to the several governments, leaving the general staffs and military commands of each power responsible to their individual governments. The United States subsequently adhered to the Rapallo agreement, and participated in the meeting of the council at Versailles on December 1, 1917.
The Pluralistic State
Authors: Ellis Ellen Deborah
Published: May 2006

The doctrine of the pluralistic state has found its most outspoken advocate in this country in Mr. Harold J. Laski,—an Englishman, recently of Harvard University, and more recently still called back to England to the London School of Economics of the University of London. A number of channels of thought have come together in Mr. Laski's present formulation of the doctrine. Among those in England from whom he received much inspiration and suggestion may be mentioned the late Professor Maitland, and Dr. J. Neville Figgis, as well as Mr. Graham Wallas, and Mr. Ernest Barker.

Professor Maitland's work in this field is closely associated with that of Dr. Otto Gierke in Germany, to the third volume of one of whose works, Das Deutsche Genossenschaftsrecht, which Professor Maitland translated, he wrote his famous Introduction in which he stated his own views with regard to the real and truly corporate personality, not only of the state but of other social groupings as well. Another of Gierke's works is Die Genossenschaftstheorie, in which it is attempted to show, to quote Dr. Figgis, “how under the facts of modern life the civilian theory of corporations is breaking down on all hands, and that even in Germany, in spite of the deliberate adoption of the Romanist doctrine, the courts and sometimes even the laws are being driven to treat corporate societies as though they were real and not fictitious persons, and to regard such personality as the natural consequence of permanent association, not a mere mark to be imposed or withheld by the sovereign power.”
The Institute for Government Research
Authors: Willoughby W. F.
Published: May 2006

The Institute for Government Research is an institution incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia and wholly supported by voluntary private donations. It received its charter on March 13, 1916, and began active operations on October 1 of the same year. Its purpose as set forth in its charter is:

“To conduct scientific investigations into the theory and practice of governmental administration, including inquiries into the form of organization and the manner of operation of federal, state and local governmental bodies and offices in the United States of America; the powers, duties, limitations and qualifications of officers; the methods of administration employed; the character and cost of results obtained and the conditions affecting the efficiency and welfare of governmental officers and employees; to carry on such inquiries, directly or with the coöperation of governments, learned societies, institutions of learning or other agencies and individuals and to make public the results of its investigations; to maintain a library for the use of the society or its members and officers and those affiliated with its work; and to prosecute such other inquiries and perform such other services as may tend to the development and application of the principles of efficiency in governmental administration.”
The Early History of the Tradition of the Constitution
Authors: Schechter Frank I.
Published: May 2006

In Aristotle's treatise on the constitution of Athens we read of the great lawgiver, Solon, that “when he had completed his organization of the constitution … he found himself beset by people coming to him and harassing him concerning his laws, criticizing here and questioning there, till, as he wished neither to alter what he had decided on, nor yet to remain an object of ill-will to everyone by remaining at Athens, he set off on a journey to Egypt, … giving out that he would not return for ten years.” To the student of American history recalling the comparison with “that old constitution-monger Solon,” so often flung at the framers of the Constitution by the anti-Federalists, the hasty exodus from Athens for a decade after the attempt “to save the country and establish the best laws that were possible,” is full of interest. The actual result of the Solonic experiment in political science we also gather from Aristotle, for “in the fifth year after Solon's government they were unable to elect an archon on account of the dissensions,” and again, four years later they elected no archon for the same reason.
Federal Aid in Australia
Authors: Warner Kenneth O.
Published: May 2006

The Australian scheme of federal aid includes two types of federal assistance to states: (1) direct financial assistance, and (2) indirect assistance through state-federal arrangements. Similarities between the schemes of the United States and Australia appear in the first type of federal aid. In the second type, however, the Australian system assumes its distinctive characteristics and makes an advance over its American prototype.
The Japanese Privy Council
Authors: Colegrove Kenneth
Published: May 2006

The growth of the democratic element in Japanese government has not been without effect on the Privy Council. In the early years of its history, the Council and the ministry were institutions serving the same classes and seeing eye to eye. This was true not only under the presidency of Ito, Oki, and Yamagata (1889-94), but also even during a considerable part of the period when party government was struggling for supremacy. In those days, political parties in the House of Representatives were balked by the bureaucrats, clansmen, and militarists entrenched in the administrative branch, while the seats in the Council were occupied by the great leaders of these controlling classes. But the doctrine of ministerial responsibility had begun to take root. In 1895, the Ito ministry abandoned the principle of executive independence of political parties and accepted an alliance with the Jiyuto, or Liberal party. In 1898, the Kenseito, or Constitutional party, under the leadership of Okuma and Itagaki, was given the opportunity of forming the first party cabinet in the history of Japan. Upon its fall, caused by internal dissension, the succeeding ministry under Yamagata (1898-1900) contained no party men, although the premier condescended to an alliance with the Kenseito. In 1900, Ito himself formed the Seiyukai, and brought the second party cabinet into office. But it was not until the first Kenseikai ministry, under Okuma and Kato (1914-16), and the fifth Seiyukai ministry under Hara (1918-21), that well-grounded ministerial parties controlled the lower house.
State Supervision of Local Fiscal Officers in Virginia
Authors: Pate James E.
Published: May 2006

One of the achievements of the brilliant administration of Harry F. Byrd was the segregation of the sources of revenue. The governor was quite sincere and enthusiastic in his support of this principle, believing, it seemed, that it was the panacea for a great many of our tax troubles. His exuberant enthusiasm caused him to make an error, many believe, when he had written into the rather inflexible constitution of the commonwealth the provision that no state tax shall be levied on real estate and tangible personal property. The state, therefore, no longer has any interest in this kind of property, and its supervision over local fiscal officers extends only so far as they are agents of the state, assessing and collecting the state's revenue.

Each county and city has a local commissioner of the revenue, elected by the people, who assesses for the state intangible personal property, individual incomes, and money and capital, and who assesses for the local government tangible personal property, machinery and tools, and merchants' capital. The state tax commissioner has forms printed and sent to each local commissioner on which all the items mentioned above are supposed to be listed at their fair market value by the taxpayer. Mr. Morrissett, the present state tax commissioner, has inaugurated a plan of holding annual conventions of commissioners of the revenue where the problem of assessment and the complications of the state tax code are discussed.
County Managerial Tendencies in Missouri
Authors: Bradshaw William R.
Published: May 2006

During recent years, the county manager plan has been growing steadily in popularity. This is shown by the literature on the subject, and, to a lesser degree, by the adoption of the system in a number of counties. Where the plan has been tried, the duties of manager have generally been conferred upon some existing county officer. In North Carolina and Virginia, for instance, different counties have experimented with (1) a member of the county board, generally the chairman, as manager, (2) a financial clerk, auditor, or accountant as manager, and (3) an engineer-manager. While the duties of the office have varied somewhat in the different types, each conforms in certain essential principles to the plan as outlined in the “model county manager law.”

In Missouri, the presiding judge of the county court, the county clerk, and the highway engineer correspond to the above officers; and should the state adopt a county-manager law, the duties of manager would probably be conferred upon one of these three officials. In fact, first-hand information secured in 1929 by interviewing county officials in thirty-three of the 114 counties, attending sessions of the county court, and studying official records shows that the county clerk and highway engineer have already, in some instances, developed general executive powers of some importance. This is true, for example, in awarding contracts, purchasing supplies, auditing claims, reports, and settlements, and determining the county tax rate. Before discussing these functions, the legal status of the county clerk and the engineer should be explained.
The Kyoto Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations
Authors: Wright Quincy
Published: May 2006

The third conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations met at Kyoto, Japan, from October 28 to November 9, 1929. Previous conferences had been held in 1925 and 1927 at Honolulu. It has been decided to hold the fourth conference in 1931 in China.

The Kyoto conference was the largest thus far held by the Institute. In all, 218 persons participated. Most of these were representatives selected by the seven national councils. The Japanese, with 48, had the largest group. The United States, with 45, came second, followed by China with 31, Canada with 29, Great Britain with 15, Australia with 11, and New Zealand with 6. In addition, there were subgroups of eight Filipinos and seven Koreans. Eight members of the Institute's Honolulu secretariat attended, as did observers from Soviet Russia, France, Netherlands, Mexico, the League of Nations, and the International Labor Office. The members were not in any case official delegates of governments. The national councils are voluntary, self-constituted, and self-perpetuating bodies, and in most cases they selected individuals to attend the conference with a view to the representation of numerous interests. The result was that frequently the closest affiliations of members cross-sectioned the national groups. For example, labor leaders from Great Britain (Malcolm MacDonald), Japan (Bunji Suzuki), Canada (Tom Moore), and the United States (Paul Scharrenburg) were often seen together. Each of the groups had women members, of whom there were 33 in all. The 72 university men constituted the largest professional interest, followed by bankers and business men (44), journalists (18), religious workers (17), and smaller numbers of members of parliaments, ex-government officials, social workers, lawyers, labor leaders, and physicians.
The Pragmatic Electorate
Authors: Wilson Francis G.
Published: May 2006

Political science has dealt too long, on the one hand, with the ideal, and, on the other hand, with the abnormal and perverted features of political society, rather than with the normal and the eventual. Our theory of ideal democracy is perhaps more suited to the Greek and Roman city-state, with participation as the test of the good citizen. Representation has been heralded as the device which makes the ancient ideal possible on a large scale. But in practice it has been found that the enormous expansion of the public, i.e., the body of persons who have the right of participation, has made the problem far more complex than was at first thought possible. Greek ideals of education and coercion of the citizen body toward general improvement have been carried out with greater success, and our statute books reflect a Hobbesian attitude toward human nature which is true only in part. The political philosophy of democracy must be built on the facts of political life.

Shall we break with the Greek and Roman ideal of the participation of the citizen group in the affairs of the state? It is true that the present attitude is a revised form of the democratic ideal of antiquity, but with a different interpretation of the meaning of citizenship. All democratic governments must finally rest on some theory of the suffrage; any study of the fact of non-voting must be based on a theory of the suffrage likewise. With the expansion of the theory of citizenship to include all subjects, a corresponding theory of limited participation was developed—no doubt a product of the Middle Ages. The totality of citizens was distrusted, and some test of participation had to be devised. Such was the origin of religious tests for political participation; such was the origin of the distinction between the right to vote and the fact of citizenship.
Recent Developments in Political Geography, I
Authors: Hartshorne Richard
Published: May 2006

The border position of geography between the natural and the social sciences is fairly generally recognized. Concerned primarily with differences in the different areas of the world, geography studies both natural and cultural features. In some universities, it is included among the natural sciences, in others among the social sciences. In England and America, geographers have particularly cultivated that portion of their field which leads naturally into economics, i.e., economic geography. Much less attention has been paid to the relations with history, although various geographers and historians have studied what has variously been called historical geography or geographic history. Even less have geographers in the English-speaking countries concerned themselves with that portion of their subject which bears upon the political areas of the world. The territorial problems of the war and postwar period, however, stimulated activity in this field both in England and America, the most notable product of which is Bowman'sThe New World, consisting in large part of the materials gathered for the American Commission to the Peace Conference.
Is There a Time Limit for Impeachment?
Authors: Rankin Robert S.
Published: May 2006

The failure of the recent attempt to impeach the late Governor Horton of Tennessee is of particular interest to students of political science because of the grounds upon which the failure to impeach was justified. The main reason given by many members of the legislature was a constitutional one, namely, that an officer cannot be impeached during his second term of office for high crimes and misdemeanors committed during his first term. Considerable doubt remains as to the soundness of this position, many people thinking that the explanation given was a clever excuse but one that would not justify the failure to impeach. It is interesting, therefore, to ascertain if, in impeachment trials where this point has arisen, a similar position has been taken either by legislative bodies or by the courts.
The New Amateur in Public Administration
Authors: Stafford Paul T.
Published: May 2006

The history of public administration in the United States is a record of compromise between conflicting principles. The oldest and most bitterly-contested of the many clashes between antagonistic points of view is that between the principle of the spoils system on the one hand and the merit principle on the other. Stripped of eulogistic verbiage, these principles present two diametrically opposed objectives—the former that administration shall be the happy hunting ground of the spoilsman, the latter that administration shall be a non-political service where “efficiency is king.” For a century at least, with the possible exception of the early days of the national administration, the advocates of the spoils system held a dominant position in the struggle, compromising only where a tradition of service protected a public office from partisan control. By 1870, however, the movement for civil service reform had gained strength and the following three or four decades witnessed a determined drive for the adoption of the merit system. The reaction to the spoils system principle, once begun, has continued ever since. Today, administration, by virtue of its sweeping powers over individual liberty and property, has come into closer contact with the citizen than ever before, and this fact is serving to accelerate the movement in favor of the merit principle in the public service.
Some Reflections on the Sociological Character of Political Parties
Authors: Michels Roberto
Published: May 2006

The political party, etymologically and logically, can embrace only a part of the citizenry, politically organized. The party is a fraction; it is pars pro toto. Let us endeavor briefly to analyze its causal origin and its behavior.

According to Max Weber, the political party has a dual teleology. It is a spontaneous society of propaganda and of agitation seeking to acquire power, in order to procure thereby for its active militant adherents chances, ideal and material, for the realization either of objective aims or of personal advantages, or of both. Consequently, the general orientation of the political party, whether in its personal or impersonal aspect, is that of Machtstreben (striving to power).

In the personal aspect, parties are often based on the protection accorded inferiors by a strong man. In the Prussian diet of 1855, which was composed of a large number of political groups, each was given the name of its leader.
The Report of the British Committee on Ministers' Powers
Authors: Gaus John M.
Published: May 2006

This document should be of great interest and value to American political scientists. The problems discussed are problems equally characteristic of our own system of government and of the present stage of development of political policy and administrative practice and procedure. Eeaders will indeed be struck by the fact that distinctions between the “parliamentary” or “cabinet” system of government and that labeled “congressional” or “presidential” are for the most part superficial.
Maine's Election Date
Authors: Brown Everett S.
Published: May 2006

Periodically the cry, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation,” attracts public attention to the fact that Maine, alone among the states, elects representatives to Congress in September instead of November. How this came to be is fairly well known. But why does Maine persist in her aloofness?

Section 3 of the act of February 2, 1872, for the apportionment of representatives to Congress among the several states, provided: “That the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six, is hereby fixed and established as the day, in each of the States and Territories of the United States, for the election of Representatives and Delegates to the Forty-fifth Congress; and the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every second year thereafter, is hereby fixed and established as the day for the election, in each of said States and Territories, of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress commencing on the fourth day of March next thereafter.”
Party Membership in the United States, II
Authors: Berdahl Clarence A.
Published: May 2006

In spite of the recent loosening of the membership or affiliation requirements in Illinois and a few other states, the general tendency throughout the development of party regulation has been toward greater strictness in this respect, toward more effective protection of the party organization against the independent voter with a careless party conscience. This is indicated, in the first place, by the turn toward an official definition and administration of these membership tests. That is, the parties are no longer left free to determine their own membership rules as they please, but these rules are to an increasing extent prescribed by state law and administered by state officials. Secondly, the tests of party membership have become, on the whole, more complex and more comprehensive, and therefore more difficult to evade—the closed primary has become more and more tightly closed. Thirdly, there has been a drift from the challenge to the enrollment or registration system, and, in general, legislation or other official action which requires greater care by the voter and the candidate in the selection of his party, and which imposes greater difficulty in changing his party affiliation.
Public Service Training in Universities
Authors: Stahl O. Glenn
Published: May 2006

Political scientists in this country have for many years been concerned with the problem of preparing young persons for public service careers. Considerable thought and discussion were devoted to the subject at numerous conferences and conventions in years before the entry of the United States into the World War, and some progress was made toward adapting university curricula to such principles as were evolved. The revival of a fresh interest in the matter evidently dates from around 1930, one of the major signs having been the Conference on University Training for the National Service held at the University of Minnesota in 1931. Since that time, the problem has received constantly increasing attention at meetings of the American Political Science Association, the Civil Service Assembly, the National Municipal League, the National League of Women Voters, and special groups such as that sponsored at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1935 by the Public Administration Clearing House.
American Traditions Concerning Property and Liberty
Authors: Coker Francis W.
Published: May 2006

When, over a century and a half ago, a poet saw a group of his countrymen about to set sail on their way to a new home in Georgia, he took a gloomy view of their prospects. He believed that they were leaving a land of scattered hamlets, sheltered cots, and cultivated farms, where ease, health, and plenty had prevailed, for a “dreary scene” around the “wild Altama”—a region of blazing suns, wild tornadoes, poisonous fields, and matted woods where lurked the “dark scorpion … vengeful snake … crouching tigers … and savage men more murderous still than they.” Posterity has liked best the poet's fond memories of his native village. Goldsmith, however, considered the practical politico-economic aspect of his poem to be its best feature. He had indeed paid some attention to actual economic changes that were causing a depopulation of the English countryside. His compatriots, he believed, were crossing “half the convex world,” not because they were dissatisfied with a land where simple pleasures and “light labour … gave what life required but gave no more,” but because such a manner of living was no longer possible in Britain: “trade's unfeeling train” had “usurped the land” and made it a place where the “man of wealth” extorted pleasures “from his fellow-creature's woe” and took up “a space that many poor supplied.”
The Study of Administration
Authors: Dimock Marshall E.
Published: May 2006

It is now fifty years since Woodrow Wilson wrote his brilliant essay on public administration. It is a good essay to reread every so often; there is so much in it that sounds modern, so much that will hold permanently true. “It is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one.” Was this said only yesterday? No, Woodrow Wilson clearly saw the importance of governmental administration half a century ago. “Administration is the most obvious part of government; it is government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of government, and is of course as old as government itself.” Yet democracies have badly neglected administrative principles and structural improvements. “Like a lusty child, government with us has expanded in nature and grown great in stature, but has also become awkward in movement. … English and American political history has been a history, not of administrative development, but of legislative oversight—not of progress in governmental organization, but of advance in law-making and political criticism. … We go on criticising when we ought to be creating.”
Theories of Federalism under the Holy Roman Empire
Authors: Eulau Heinz H. F.
Published: May 2006

A fact little appreciated by American political scientists is the relatively early emergence of federalism as a working concept of political theory in the Holy Roman Empire of the seventeenth century. But although these federal theories run ahead of corresponding theories elsewhere, it must be pointed out that political and legal conditions peculiar to the medieval Empire retarded an even earlier appearance. For centuries, the constitution of the Empire had retained its feudalistic structure. Many conspicuous changes, however, had taken place in the course of its development and had filled that structure with an entirely different content. The main result of the Empire's constitutional evolution had been its gradual transformation from an originally fairly unitary state into a federalistic organization ofde factosovereign states. It might be supposed, therefore, that the highly articulated territorial organization of the Empire would have easily served as fertile soil on which contemporary political theorists and jurists might have founded an elaborate theory of federalism.
The Constitutional Position of the Partito Nazionale Fascista
Authors: Steiner H. Arthur
Published: May 2006

In the one-party states, of which the U.S.S.R., Germany, and Italy may be taken as the best examples, the definition of relationships between the party and the state has presented a major problem of constitutional theory. No two of these states have solved the problem in the same way. The C.P.S.U., engineering the dictatorship of the proletariat, depends upon methods which are constitutionally indirect. Only in the Commission for Soviet Control is there a constitutionalized inter-relationship between the mechanisms of the party and the state; for the rest, the party relies upon its political discipline over the public personnel. Indirect reference to the Communist party is contained in the new Soviet constitution, in the guarantee to citizens of the right of “uniting in the Communist party of the U.S.S.R.,” and in the incorporation of the hammer and sickle and the slogan of the party into the emblem of the state. On the other hand, the Nazi régime in Germany prohibited the formation of other parties than the N.S.D.A.P. by the law of July 14, 1933, and, by the law of December 1, 1933, proclaimed the formal union of the party and the state.
Conference Committees in the Nebraska Legislature
Authors: Burdette Franklin L.
Published: May 2006

In his campaign for a unicameral legislature in Nebraska, Senator George W. Norris cited the necessity of conference committees as one of the chief evils in the bicameral system. To Senator Norris, the conference committee is often a “third house” of the legislature, where a small group of men, working in secret and enjoying great parliamentary advantages, so modify bills in dispute between the two chambers that the will of the majority is defeated.
Public Service—Occupation or Industry?
Authors: Meriam Lewis
Published: May 2006

In the April issue of this REVIEW, Professor William E. Mosher, of Syracuse University, ably expounded the views of those students of public administration who hold that public service is, or should be, a distinct profession. It therefore seems desirable that a member of an opposing school of thought should present the other position.

The other school believes that public service is not a distinctive occupation or profession. In the terms of the labor economist and statistician, public service is, at most, a distinctive industry. Within that industry are a host of separate and distinct occupations.
Party Membership in the United States, I
Authors: Berdahl Clarence A.
Published: May 2006

In any party system, it would seem of some importance to establish rules and qualifications for membership in the different party groups, in order to bring together those persons, and only those persons, who adhere to the respective party principles. That should be particularly important in a two-party system, where the principles and issues are presumably sharply defined and clearly distinguishable. This matter has received increasing attention during recent years, and the importance of the problem was well stated by the Chicago Tribune, in an editorial referring to the Illinois primary campaign of 1938:

“The advantages of party organization and party responsibility have been proved over a long range of political testing, and although the abuses at times seem substantial. If a party is to be recognized as having legal standing, and if it is to make its nominations under the direction of law, there should be, it would seem, some determined qualification of its voters…. There shouldn't be a pretence of one thing and a fact of another. If Democrats and Republicans are to have legal standing as such, then Democrats should not make Republican decisions and Republicans should not make Democratic decisions. To permit this is to commit a fraud against the citizens who are trying to make their organization and their decisions according to the prevailing theory of political action and party responsibility.”
The Legal Status of Albania
Authors: Sereni Angelo Piero
Published: May 2006

On April 7, 1939, the Italian news agency, Stefani, announced officially that Italian troops had landed in Albania. Having overcome some resistance, they entered Tirana, the capital, the following day and then rapidly completed the occupation of the country. An attempt at legal justification followed this military action. The Italian press announced that after the landing of troops an Albanian provisional committee, quickly formed, convoked an Assembly composed of delegates from all Albanian provinces. On April 12, 1939, this Assembly, having vested itself with full powers, declared the decadence of the preceding régime and offered the crown of Albania to the king of Italy. The Italian law of April 16, 1939, n. 580, declared that the king of Italy, having accepted the crown of Albania, assumed for himself and for his successors the title of King of Italy and Albania, Emperor of Ethiopia. Then followed a series of measures legally entrusting Italy with full control over Albania.
British By-Elections: What Do They Prove?
Authors: Sparks John Cunningham
Published: May 2006

“Returns from three more by-elections make it abundantly clear that the British people are not behind Prime Minister Chamberlain in his peace-at-any-price policies.” Thus the Nation summed up the results of the first five post-Munich byelections. The London Times, however, in an editorial on the ninth of the same series, thought “the result of the East Norfolk by-election should hearten and stiffen the Government.”
The Initiative and Referendum in Cities
Authors: Crouch Winston W.
Published: May 2006

Direct legislation has returned to excite considerable interest after a quiet period of a few years in which the traditional legislative processes were allowed to operate undisturbed in the states and cities. Old age pension plans put before the voters by initiative petitions in Colorado, California, and Ohio have excited more inspection of direct legislation procedures than at any time in their history. Several studies have been made of the laws governing the initiative and referendum, and also of their operation in the states. No less significant than state-wide initiatives and referenda have been the anti-picketing and labor regulating initiatives in Los Angeles; ordinances in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland, California, requiring two operators on street cars; attacks upon proportional representation in New York by petitions; attempts by labor organizations in Detroit to set policies regarding working conditions on the city's street railways by initiative ordinances; or the attempts by firemen and police in many cities to obtain civil service and pension systems through the same device. Several of these cities now have approximately thirty-five years of experience with municipal direct legislation.

Numerous factors in American municipal politics have combined within the past fifty years to develop a sentiment for laying upon the electorate a portion of the responsibility for determining local policy. The idea that the voters of the municipality should be allowed, to decide certain policies was developed chiefly by the home rule movement.
Municipal Government and Labor Disputes
Authors: Moore Lyman S.
Published: May 2006

As a means of settling labor disputes, strikes benefit no element in the community. Their financial costs to workers, industry, capital, consumers, government, and society cannot be accurately totaled but may be amply demonstrated. Strikes are costly not only in terms of money, but also because they prejudice just and intelligent solutions of the essential issues of wages, working conditions, and industrial control. Solutions which are compelled by violence or coercion are adequate only by unlikely coincidence.
The Community of the Parliaments of the British Commonwealth
Authors: Hall H. Duncan
Published: May 2006

When Nazi planes, on the night of May 10, 1941, bombed the rooms of the Empire Parliamentary Association in Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament, they struck at a central institution of the British Empire. Fire destroyed most of its records. Fire-blackened, water-soaked documents, annual reports, verbatim reports of annual meetings and of sessions of the Empire Parliamentary Conference, and other documents, all bearing marks of that night, have formed the basis of this article, which incorporates also the experience gained from personal contacts with the Association in most parts of the Empire, including the addressing of meetings of members in the parliaments of each of the Oversea Dominions and attendance at meetings of the Empire Parliamentary Conference.
The Personnel Structure of French Cabinets
Authors: Heinberg John G.
Published: May 2006

Since over 80 new ministers have entered French cabinets subsequent to the period covered in a previous article in this REVIEW, the figures supplied therein may well be brought down more closely to date. During the 805 months between February 19, 1871, and March 13, 1938, 434 persons, under-secretaries excluded, have formed the 106 separately appointed or reappointed councils of ministers. The question as to how many different cabinets France has had under the Third Republic may be left to metaphysicians. Almost every newly-appointed Conseil contains a large percentage of those who served in its predecessor. Cabinets which resign upon the election of a new president of the Republic are frequently reappointed in toto. Some cabinets have served for only a few days.
The Second Session of the Seventy-Seventh Congress
Authors: Riddick Floyd M.
Published: May 2006

The course of affairs in the second session of the Seventy-seventh Congress can best be differentiated from that of all recent years if examined with the thought that the United States is in an “all-out” war. That was how the President presented the situation to Congress on January 6 in his annual message on the state of the Union. And that was the phrase frequently used throughout the year by Representatives and Senators as an argument for or against enacting controversial bills, delegating unprecedented regulative powers, or appropriating many billions of dollars to defray governmental expenses.

On the other hand, while all of the recommendations for legislation embodied in the President's message were designed to bring the war more quickly to a close, Congress was asked by the Administration at various times during the year for the enactment of measures not related to the defense program, as the proposals to “rid Congress of trivia” and for settlement of claims of American nationals against the government of Mexico. The House and Senate, likewise, of their own accord, troubled themselves with such matters as the repeal of poll tax laws, the right of Senator Langer to his seat in the Senate, and the so-called “Congressional pension bill.”
The Failure of the Farmer-Labor Party to Capture Control of the Minnesota Legislature
Authors: Naftalin Arthur
Published: May 2006

Whatever the Farmer-Labor party in Minnesota may or may not have achieved during the period of its ascendancy from 1931 to 1939, it is obvious that its effectiveness was drastically impaired by its failure to control the state legislature. With the exception of 1933 and 1937, when the so-called Liberal caucus elected the speaker of the house of representatives and organized that body, the Farmer-Labor party did not have a majority in either house of the legislature. In other words, the party controlled neither the house nor the senate in the sessions of 1931 and 1935 and controlled only the house in 1933 and 1937.

Why was the party unable to control the legislature at a time when the state, by positive pluralities and majorities, was electing and re-electing Farmer-Laborites to state administrative offices? This question relates to a basic problem in representative democracy, for certainly here was a clear instance of the will of the “majority” submitting over a period of eight years to that of a “minority” among the state's voters. In 1943, the Farmer-Labor party, torn by inner strife and discredited in many quarters, had reached what appeared to be the bottom of a decline that began with an overwhelming defeat by the Republicans in the 1938 general election.
Preparation of the Local Budget
Authors: Perkins John A.
Published: May 2006

The old saws, “money makes the mare go” and “he who pays the piper calls the tune,” make for awareness of the central importance of budgeting in government. While these expressions indicate the possibility of a measure of general understanding of public budgeting, they also are indicative of the ease with which superficiality and misconceptions may develop in this field. A public budget, one authority has rightly declared “… is not what most people conceive it to be. It is not figures about sums of money to be set aside for definite expenditures, nor is it a series of graphic charts, nor multitudes of sheets indicating limits not to be exceeded.” While columns of figures, forms and procedures, and preparation of the budget document are important budget activities, they are only incidental to the basic functions of budgeting, which are to aid the executive in his job of management and to help simplify the task of the legislative body in determining policy. To carry out these two functions properly, the whole governmental organization, indeed, the citizenry, too, must be involved in budgeting.

The budget is a psychological device to make people in an administrative organization think and, as will be explained more fully, to make the people themselves think about their government. Budget reformers, hard at work in this worthy cause since the model municipal corporation act of 1899 was drafted, have emphasized the executive's rôle in budgeting: “it shall be the duty of the Mayor … in each year to submit to the Council the annual budget …” The tendency has been for the executive and his budget officer, commonly the controller, to work up a budget and then impose it, with councilmanic consent, on the administration.
IV. The Rôle of Congress and Public Opinion in Formulating Foreign Policy
Authors: Colegrove Kenneth
Published: May 2006

There is a popular expectation in the United States that the peace settlement of the major United Nations will be as effectively and loyally executed by the United States as by Great Britain and Soviet Russia. This over-confidence of the American people in the prowess of their President is partly due to: (1) the successful conduct of the war, (2) the popular credence placed in the Chief Executive as national leader in time of war, (3) the immense personal prestige of President Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and (4) the belief that, in case the November election should bring the Republican party into control of the White House, Governor Dewey would continue with vigor the Rooseveltian policy of full participation and leadership on the part of the United States.

A warning that the American Senate might shatter this peace settlement was sounded by Senators Arthur H. Vandenberg and Robert A. Taft and other somewhat isolation-minded Republicans in September, 1943, in the Mackinac Declaration. The “constitutionalism” proposed by this declaration meant nothing else than that the peace settlement must be in the form of a treaty which would require the consent of two-thirds of the members of the American Senate. Senators Vandenberg and Taft controlled the resolutions committee of the Republican national convention in July, 1944, with the result that the Republican platform concluded its proposal regarding the peace settlement with the following pronouncement: “Pursuant to the Constitution of the United States, any treaty or agreement to attain such [international] aims made on behalf of the United States with any other nation or association of nations, shall be made only by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”