bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Political Causes of Inflation
Authors: Whitehead Laurence
Published: December 2006

This article identifies two types of causal explanations of inflation that do not fit well with the categories of analysis used by economists and sociologists. These causes are first, a deliberate centralized decision to start up inflation in pursuit of some high priority political objective; and second, a weakening of the power structure underpinning a given market, so that sectional conflicts of interest can no longer be peacefully resolved except by tolerating inflation. These two causes of inflation are highly political in character, but students of politics have not taken a prominent part in recent inter-disciplinary analyses of inflationary processes. The article therefore reviews the approaches proposed by economists and sociologists. It argues that the sociological approach is almost inherently incapable of explaining inflation at the international level (the major source of historically experienced inflations), and that economics also has some difficulty in adapting itself to an environment in which the political and institutional bases of market relationships are shifting and insecure. It concludes that students of politics can and should make a larger contribution to the analysis of inflationary processes.
The Entitlement Theory of Justice Considered
Authors: Goldsmith M. M.
Published: December 2006

In Anarchy, State and Utopia Robert Nozick advocates an entitlement theory of justice. But each of its three principles has difficulties. The right of acquisition, which Nozick regards as Lockean, lacks the base of Locke's right to property in a right to life, nor does it stand, Nozick admits, on a utilitarian justification. The right of transfer, more complex than it first seems, includes unavoidable restrictions on voluntary transfers even on Nozick's account which apparently uses two different conceptions of property. The principle of rectification seems unworkable, not only because of the information it requires but also because any application of it (subsequent to the first generation) is either uncertain or unjust. An entitlement theory is purely formal unless it provides rules for assigning specific rights.
The Logic of J. S. Mill on Freedom
Authors: Smith G. W.
Published: December 2006

Mill's aim in Chapter 2 of Book 6 of the System of Logic, to reconcile human freedom with universal causality whilst at the same time answering the challenge of Owenite ‘social fatalism’, pushes him into attempting an ambitious reconstruction of the traditional Compatibilist conception of freedom as absence of constraint. An examination of the convolutions through which the argument goes before culminating in the conclusion that genuine freedom is the same as complete virtue reveals over half-a-dozen distinct varieties of freedom and a remarkably chaotic mixture of insight and confusion, much of which bears directly upon an understanding of the kind of freedom Mill was out to protect in On Liberty.
The Bases of National Front Support
Authors: Harrop Martin , England Judith , Husbands Christopher T.
Published: December 2006

The National Front (NF) is of interest both to students of British politics and to political sociologists interested in the general study of contemporary right-wing movements. This article examines the extent of public sympathy for the NF and identifies factors distinguishing NF voters from the rest of the adult population. Analysis of twenty-two national surveys shows that less than 1 per cent of the adult population aged fifteen or older are prepared to say that they intend to vote for the NF, although about 5 per cent can be assessed as potential NF voters and about another 10 per cent are sympathetic to the party. NF voting is located disproportionately among younger working-class males living in London and the West Midlands.
Banana Time in British Politics
Authors: Goodin Robert E.
Published: December 2006

One way of manipulating the demands of citizens is by shaping their perceptions of what is possible. An important technique for creating the illusion of impossibility is the familiar political claim that ‘the time is not right’ for a particular reform. The argument purports to point to objective, immutable constraints. More often, reference is merely to the artificial bargaining routines of politics. Groups are co-opted into issue-specific subgovernments, not out of necessity but for sheer administrative convenience. Political time moves quickly or slowly in that sector depending on the number, character and obstinacy of those co-opted groups.
Party Identification and Public Spending Priorities in the American Electorate
Authors: Lowery David , Sigelman Lee
Published: December 2006

In a study published in 1980, Alan Lewis found that members of the British mass public tend to have clearly defined preferences on spending in specific policy areas and that these preferences are closely related to party identification. This paper examines Lewis's conclusion in the American setting. Data on eleven spending policies from the 1973 and 1980 General Social Survey are examined via factor analysis and multiple classification analysis. While some change is observed between 1973 and 1980, the preferences of the American public on public expenditures appear to be quite stable and, contrary to Lewis's findings these preferences are unrelated to party identification.
Chickens, Whales, and Lumpy Goods: Alternative Models of Public-Goods Provision
Authors: Taylor Michael , Ward Hugh
Published: December 2006

The game-theoretic literature on the problem of the provision of public goods has concentrated almost exclusively on one model—the Prisoner's Dilemma game. Several other simple games may be more applicable in certain situations. In particular, the game structure known as Chicken seems to provide a better description of an important sub-class of games where the good is lumpy rather than continuously divisible. Many environmental public goods belong to this category. A distinct paradox of public-goods provision occurs within games of Chicken.
Hobbes and the Right of Self-Defence
Authors: Morgan Geraint
Published: December 2006

The weakness of the Hobbesian sovereign which arises out of what the individual can do in his own defence is well established. What has not been examined is the attempts Hobbes makes to counter this and that is the concern of this article. He appeals to the individual to exercise caution on three distinct grounds: on grounds of gallantry, on grounds of ‘reasonability’ and finally by reference to theology. Each appeal is examined and each is seen to fail. Such is Hobbes's insistence on Passion and Will as the basis of society that he finds it impossible to appeal to Reason and Nature to temper its exercise.
Political Communications in the USSR: Letters to Party, State and Press
Authors: White Stephen
Published: December 2006

The letters sent by Soviet citizens to party and state bodies and to the press have been relatively little studied in the West, although the Soviet authorities themselves have been devoting increasing attention to this ‘link with the masses' since at least the late 1960s. An examination of the extent and nature of such communications shows that their total number has increased significantly since the 1950s, and that more constructive and general proposals have been increasing at the expense of particular individual grievances, although this change is less apparent at the local level. Critics are sometimes victimized and frequently ignored, but the evidence suggests that a considerable groundswell of opinion as reflected in letters can have some influence upon public policy and that particular cases of maladministration or abuse of position can be relatively readily corrected in this way.
The Policy Opinions of British Political Activists
Authors: Welch Susan , Studlar Donley T.
Published: December 2006

This article employs the October 1974 British Election Study to examine the level and nature of political ideology among British political activists, the effects of socioeconomic characteristics on these attitudes, and the impact of the attitudes on political behaviour. On balance, the activist group closely resembles the nonactivist population. Activists are somewhat more ideological in their thinking than nonactivists, but the differences are quite small. Demographic attributes affect the policy attitudes of the élite slightly more than the nonactivists, but again differences are small. The influence of issue attitudes on voting is about the same for activists and nonactivists. These results stand in contrast to studies showing large élite-mass policy differences in the United States and other work documenting ideological orientations in higher levels of the Labour Party.
The Development of Political Corruption: A Case Study of Israel
Authors: Werner Simcha B.
Published: December 2006

The paper emphasizes the effects of various societal forces on the development of corruption. The study of these factors contributes to an understanding of how corruption can thrive in countries with high levels of political development. Three stages of the life-cycle of corruption have been identified in Israel, which serves as a case study. The embryonic stage is associated with foreign domination of Palestine. The period after Israel became independent and until 1967 marks the development stage of corruption, when inhibiting and stimulating forces intermingled and produced white corruption, which was rationalized, condoned and allowed to prevail. The period since 1967 evidences the maturation of corruption. In this period, inhibiting forces of corruption are declining, while catalyzing forces of corruption are accentuating. The result is numerous scandals of black corruption that upset the political system.
The Blueshirts and the ‘Economic War’: A Study of Ireland in the Context of Dependency Theory
Authors: Orridge Andrew W.
Published: December 2006

The article assesses the accuracy of certain propositions derived from dependency theory as descriptions of the Irish experience since independence in 1922. Particular attention is paid to the 1930s, when there was a lengthy financial dispute between Ireland and the United Kingdom which brought the economic links between the two countries under greater strain than before or since. The conclusions are that dependency theory does enable the analyst to locate the major sources of domestic opposition to such disputes—the interests most closely tied to the metropolis—and this does cast new light on Irish political divisions in the first decades of independence. But the theory is both ambiguous and unhelpful in analysing the origins of dependency, the limits on the action and power of the groupings in the satellite country, and the possibilities of economic development.
Toward a Coherent Theory of Human Moral Development: Beyond Sir Isaiah Berlin's Vision of Human Nature
Authors: Kocis Robert A.
Published: December 2006

Berlin's theory of human nature is criticized on two grounds. First, within his substantive account of us, there is a tension between the Kantian vision of persons as purposive (which requires that we be free) and the Herderian pluralism (which depicts liberty as equal to other values). Second, his claim that theories of self-realization are inherently prone to rationalist perversion—and political oppression —is depicted as mistaken because it is teleology, and not the regularities of human change, that perverts our ideals. To resolve the tension within Berlin's account, a non-teleological account of our moral development is suggested: once secured, we can grow in a variety of contradictory directions. Liberty—which, along with justice and privacy, fosters security—is thus not the height of a superior morality, but a part of the psychological basis of any valid morality.
‘Excessive and Unreasonable’: The Politics of the Scottish Hit List
Authors: Midwinter Arthur , Keating Michael , Taylor Peter
Published: December 2006

The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act marks a major change in central-local relations in allowing selective intervention in the expenditure decisions of individual councils. The criteria for action, based upon the concept of ‘excessive and unreasonable’ expenditure are broadly drawn. In taking action against seven councils in 1981–2, the Scottish Office applied its own criteria inconsistently. The case against the councils lacked intellectual credibility and an alternative ‘hit list’ could as plausibly be produced. The councils' reactions and the exchanges with the Scottish Office show a varied pattern, with a minority stressing the principle of local autonomy. The Act has failed to achieve the objectives which central government appeared to have in mind. It has, instead, further eroded local autonomy and destabilized central-local relations in Scotland.
Politics, Banks and Markets: An Anglo-American Comparison
Authors: Moran Michael
Published: December 2006

A comparison of banking politics in Britain and the United States is offered as a contribution to the debate about business power under market capitalism, particularly in the light of Lindblom's picture of business as a privileged interest. Important differences are noted between British and American banking. Contrasts in industrial structure, forms of interest representation and methods of regulation are stressed particularly. Convergence between the two systems in recent decades is described, and is attributed to the way innovation in markets destroys public controls and creates common problems for regulators. The experience of banking markets thus confirms much of Lindblom's argument. But regulation, and thus public control, is also shown to play a decisive part in shaping business behaviour.
Social Regulation and Explanations of Regulatory Failure
Authors: Wilson Graham K.
Published: December 2006

It used to be commonly accepted that regulatory agencies in the United States were doomed to fall under the control of the industry with which they dealt and thus be captured by it. This article considers the degree to which explanations of such capture were vindicated by the social regulatory agencies created in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s which were designed to withstand the pressures identified by political scientists as leading to the capture of regulatory agencies. The political scientists who identified the factors leading to the capture of regulatory agencies in America are found to have been partly vindicated by the history of the new social regulatory agencies. There are important reasons for the failure of the new social regulatory agencies, however, which were not identified by such writers.
A Critique of the Consumption Cleavage Approach in British Voting Studies
Authors: Franklin Mark N. , Page Edward C.
Published: December 2006

In recent years the theory of consumption cleavages has progressed far towards supplanting traditional explanations of voting behaviour resting on socialization and issue-based electoral choice. What is not often realized is that the new theory cannot readily coexist with traditional explanations. If consumption cleavage theory is right then much of what we thought we understood about political behaviour is wrong; and the implications of this confrontation extend far beyond voting studies or even political science, to fields as diverse as anthropology and social psychology. In this paper it is argued that traditional explanations of voting choice have not been proved defective by the consumption cleavage theorists, nor has the proposed replacement been proved superior in this field of study. The consumption cleavage approach is questioned because its adoption would involve great sacrifices while offering little in return.
Political Power and Socio-Economic Development: Two Polemics
Authors: Goldsworthy David
Published: December 2006

However well-intentioned welfarist development programmes in the Third World may be, there is overwhelming evidence that the actual outcomes typically reflect not so much patterns of need as patterns of political power. Usually the distribution of power is extremely unequal and development outcomes are correspondingly inequitable. Two major questions arise. Is there something inevitable about this tendency, or is equitable development possible in spite of the unequal distribution of power? And is it plausible to suppose that a more egalitarian distribution of power will lead to more equitable development? The article reviews conservative, centrist and radical positions on these issues, together with some empirical evidence, and suggests that the onus now lies heavily on proponents of ‘order’ to justify their position against proponents of ‘participation’.
The Treasury and Britain's Decline
Authors: Thain Colin
Published: December 2006

This article concentrates on explanations of Britain's economic decline which highlight the role of the Treasury. There is inconclusive evidence that stop-go financial policies and low investment have contributed to low growth. It is argued that foreign economic policy delayed the modernization of the economy. Although officials influence day-to-day strategy and the creation of instrumentation, the collegiate nature of decision-making means that civil service influence is hard to assess. The Treasury is constrained by pressure groups and by other departments in Whitehall. These constraints are examined with reference to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy. Finally, there are long-term reasons for Britain's decline and these do not originate in any one institution. It is not possible to analyse the role of the Treasury in isolation.
Regulative Political Theory: Language, Norms and Ideology
Authors: Graham Keith
Published: December 2006

Some of the features of the ordinary language method in philosophy have survived in recent political theory. The method's drawback is its conceptual conservatism, which may go unnoticed when it is employed rather than discussed. Pennock's recent arguments about liberty are shown to rely on the method at crucial points, in such a way as to give unjustified support to the concept of negative liberty. More surprisingly, there is common ground between the ordinary language method and empirical democratic theory. Recent attempts to show the ideological nature of such theory are criticized in the light of further considerations about the illocutionary force attaching to the concept of democracy. Finally, an alternative to the ordinary language method of enquiry is sketched.
Whatever Happened to Consensus Politics?
Authors: Kavanagh Dennis
Published: December 2006

The term ‘consensus politics' has frequently been used to describe post-war British politics. More recently it appears to have been overtaken by ‘the end of consensus polities’. The first part of this paper examines the different meanings of consensus in British politics, and analyses the concept with reference to the mixed economy and welfare. The second part examines the salient features of the consensus and how they emerged. The third section analyses the forces that have undermined the consensus and the concluson considers evidence about the nature of the political agenda in the 1980s.
Public, Private and Common in Outer Space: Res Extra Commercium or Res Communis Humanitatis beyond the High Frontier?
Authors: Laver Michael
Published: December 2006

The parable of the ‘Tragedy of the Commons' can be applied to the international politics of outer space. The specific legal content of human activity on the Moon and in the geostationary orbit precludes a private appropriation, while the established röle of private corporations in the economy of outer space makes the establishment of collective ownership unlikely. The tension between treaty law and customary law, and between rival legal interpretations of space activity, mirrors an underlying conflict between space powers and non-space powers. For the time being at least, the space powers have an incentive to maintain the legal régime most susceptible to tragedy, since this is the one that they can dominate most easily.
The Christian Democracy of A. D. Lindsay
Authors: Maddox Graham
Published: December 2006

Much of value in the conception of a democratic state, evident in the work of several English and American scholars writing around the time of the Second World War, but most forcefully presented by A. D. Lindsay, has been overlooked by contemporary scholarship. Lindsay combined a ‘realist’ acceptance of state power with a finely-tuned appreciation of the possibilities of citizenship. His distinctive contributions to democratic theory, focusing on discussion, state power, the sovereignty of the constitution, voluntary association and the creativity of democracy, are well worth re-examination, even if in the end for Lindsay political activism was merely a necessary adjunct to religious faith.
On the Death and Resurrection of Class Voting: Some Comments on How Britain Votes
Authors: Crewe Ivor
Published: December 2006

How Britain Votes,1 based on the 1983 British Election Study, challenges the consensual view that in recent elections class voting has declined and thereby contributed to Labour's electoral misfortunes. It redefines social classes, including the working class, claims that relative class voting shows no evidence of decline, argues that Labour's electoral troubles are largely due to the diminishing size of the working class, not its changing character, and infers that Labour need not and should not dilute its explicit working-class appeal. This article shows that these criticisms of previous work are misplaced; that the claim that class voting has not declined is marred by logical, conceptual and measurement flaws; that a class dealignment has undoubtedly occurred; and that the implications for Labour's electoral strategy are the opposite of those suggested.
Bourgeois Theories of Local Government
Authors: Magnusson Warren
Published: December 2006

This paper offers an historical analysis of the principles of local government organization that have been accepted in Britain and the United States. The central thesis is that these principles express an ‘economist’ conception of politics and the state. Local governments have been variously conceived—as business corporations, consumers' cooperatives, and institutions of the state—but in each case they have been assigned a restricted, essentially instrumental purpose. This purpose is connected to economic welfare, which, it is supposed, requires centralization of government. Thus the prevalent economist conceptions of local government condemn the local polity to a tenuous existence.
The Proof of Capitalism: Usher's Celebration of the Status Quo
Authors: Berg Elias
Published: December 2006

In The Economic Prerequisite to Democracy, Dan Usher tries to prove that capitalism is necessary for the survival of democracy, defined as majority rule by means of a popularly-elected legislature. Usher assumes that this survival requires general agreement both on the legislative majority-rule method and on certain substantive issues. This assumption turns out to be doubtful. Usher believes that the issues most likely to provoke serious disagreement are ‘assignment’ issues; that is, those issues which involve the stability of the positions assigned to individuals in the economic rank order. Some of his reasons for this belief do not seem valid, although the belief is somewhat plausible. Usher asserts that to prevent serious disagreement from disrupting legislative majority rule, assignment issues must be largely decided by a ‘system of equity’. Usher's reasoning here is unconvincing. Finally, Usher states that (the present form of) capitalism is the only practicable system of equity. This statement is open to doubt. Usher has not proved that capitalism is necessary for the survival of democracy. One implication of Usher's argument is that major reassignment by the legislature will be strongly opposed by the economically superior ranked. Another is that some of the most important issues—assignment issues—should be largely kept out of the legislative majority decision; in other words, democracy must be curtailed in order to survive.
Hannah Arendt on Kant, Truth and Politics
Authors: Riley Patrick
Published: December 2006

Hannah Arendt is right to give prominence to Kant's Critique of Judgment—for that work contains Kant's fullest treatment of ‘ends' and purposes, and Kantian politics (embracing universal republicanism and eternal peace) is meant to be a ‘legal’ realization of moral ends (when ‘good will’ alone is too weak to produce what ought to be). But Arendt is wrong to try to extract a ‘new’ Kantian politics from Judgment's aesthetic ideas: Kantian politics is already ‘there’, and need not be squeezed out of his theory of art. She has chosen the right work, but given it a bizarre reading.
Complexity and Rationality in Public Life
Authors: Dryzek John S.
Published: December 2006

Increasing complexity in the contemporary world calls into question prevailing notions of rationality in public policy and political life. Even in their most refined forms, instrumental-analytic strategies of decision are inherently limited when confronted with complexity. Communicative rationality, rooted in the inter-subjective understanding of competent actors, could cope more effectively with complex social problems. By implication, political institutions grounded in instrumental rationality may be less effective than those providing for reasoned discourse among concerned actors.
Towards a Social Democratic Theory of the State
Authors: Pettit Philip
Published: December 2006

The paper attempts two tasks. The first is to provide a characterization of the social democratic approach which sets it in contrast to liberal democratic theories. This is pursued by contrasting the different interpretations of the ideal of equal respect which are associated with the two approaches. The second task is to establish that the social democratic approach is, if not clearly superior, at least worth considering further. This task is pursued by the attempt to vindicate three assumptions which the social democratic approach must make about the state.
Some Thoughts on Civil Society in Eastern Europe and the Lockean Contractarian Approach
Authors: Rau Zbigniew
Published: December 2006

Neither the concept of the totalitarian system nor the newly worked-out notion of ‘socialist civil society’ can express the social and political phenomenon of the rise and growth of independent groups and movements in Eastern Europe. Rather, it is suggested here that the Lockean contractarian approach should be used. This embraces mutually interacting ethical, empirical and analytic arguments which would take into consideration the state, the independent groups organized outside it, and the relationships between them. The utility of the model of the totalitarian state in understanding the origin of independent groups is discussed here. Lockean multidimensional individualism is suggested as a category expressing the political character of these groups, and Lockean teaching on absolute monarchy—a special form of the state of nature—is advanced as the means for analysing the relationship between these groups and the state of the Soviet type.
Hayek's Bizarre Liberalism: A Critique
Authors: Forsyth Murray
Published: December 2006

This paper questions the conventional view of F. A. Hayek as a reviver of ‘classical liberalism’. It argues that the foundation of Hayek's doctrine is a naturalist or physicalist conception of man which is at variance with the classic tenets of liberalism. It shows how Hayek's theory of society and of the abstract rules that ought to govern society are partly a continuation and partly a contradiction of his physicalist notion of man. The paper draws particular attention to Hayek's work The Sensory Order and to the sometimes overlooked influence of Ernst Mach on his ideas.
‘All Things Richly to Enjoy’: Economics and Politics in Locke's Two Treatises of Government
Authors: Kelly Patrick
Published: December 2006

For all its importance, what is actually said about money in Two Treatises is highly obscure. Comparison with Locke's 1668–74 writings on interest reveals a common understanding of the function of money, akin to that of contemporary mercantilists, which illuminates many difficulties in the chapter on property. These writings are the source of the main economic concepts in the Treatises; namely, labour as the active source of wealth (which along with the Roman Law notion of self-ownership provides the basis of Locke's theory of property); money overcoming the ‘spoliation limit’ on the accumulation of consumables, and the idea that money is created by and derives its value from consent (which Two Treatises exploits as a justification of the unequal distribution of property). Finally, the early writings suggest how implausible it is to read a labour theory of exchange value into the Treatises.
Policy Community, Policy Network and Comparative Industrial Policies
Authors: Wright Maurice
Published: December 2006

This article explores ways in which the relationships between ‘government’ and ‘industry’ in the making and carrying out of policy can be compared cross-sectorally and cross-nationally. It draws attention to the accumulating empirical evidence which suggests a disjuncture between conventional characterizations of national economic and industrial policies and processes, with what actually happens in practice. It argues that more systematic attention needs to be given to the analysis of the norms of policy and behaviour at different policy levels. Using the concepts of policy community and policy network, it shows how policy networks can be identified, characterized and compared, and how relationships within networks are regulated by ‘rules of the game’.
The New Right in Central Europe II: Poland and Hungary
Authors: Scruton Roger
Published: December 2006

‘The New Right’ as it has come to be known, derives from at least two major intellectual sources, free market theory and social conservatism. The question how far these are compatible is frequently raised. The aim of this two-part article is to explore the impact of ‘New Right’ thinking in East Central Europe (specifically in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary) in order to show that in the conditions of ‘real Socialism’, free market and social conservative ideas seem to arise naturally from the same root conceptions.

This second section deals with Poland, and examines the new ‘market sociology’ propagated within universities, together with the metaphysical and political ideas surrounding the Polish Nationalist movement.
Comparative Analysis in Political Science: Requiem or Resurrection?
Authors: Badie Bertrand
Published: December 2006

Comparative method in political science is currently going through a critical time, particularly after the failure of developmentalism, and of the classical paradigm of comparative government. This crisis stems from questioning universalism, monodeterminism and the compartmentalism between political science and history. New paradigms are now conceived in order to overcome this crisis: culturalism, social action, historical sociology. Can they be used to construct a new kind of comparison? Can they deal effectively with the new objects of comparison which derive from the increasing differentiation of political situations and political practices that we currently observe?
Political Parties: Towards a New Theoretical Synthesis
Authors: Charlot Jean
Published: December 2006

Three conceptions of the political party can be distinguished. They are Seiler's sociocultural cleavage approach; Lawson's notion of the linkage party, based upon participatory, policy-responsive, clientèle reward and government directive linkages; and Offerlé's conception of parties as political enterprises concentrating upon partisan supply to the political market. After suggesting that, whatever their partial merits, none of these approaches provides the basis for a comprehensive theory of political parties, a dual party approach is prepared. Every party exists in and for itself as well as interacting with a constraining environment. A dialectical model, based upon relations between internal decision-making and external competition within the context of the rules of the game, offers the best prospect of further advance in the study of political parties.
The Thin Theory of Community: The Communitarians and Their Critics
Authors: Cochran Clarke E.
Published: December 2006

Where communitarian theorists were once voices crying in the wilderness of political philosophy, now they camp near the centre of the discipline. This paper appraises the success of the new communal stirrings, particularly the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Sandel, Michael Walzer and Benjamin Barber. It also evaluates and finds wanting the liberal critics of the new communitarian turn, who defend the ‘thin’ theory of the self against the ‘thicker’, embedded theories of self advanced by the communitarians. The critics' contention that liberal tolerance and human rights depend on a ‘thin’ theory of the self is not persuasive. Yet the theories of community submitted as remedies for ‘thin’ theories of the self are themselves too thin. First, consideration of individual elements of community is too narrow. Character, for example, is mentioned by many of the communitarians but not explored in depth. Secondly, even those theorists who examine some essentials in depth neglect the range of requirements, particularly authority, loyalty and commitment. The communitarian line of argument, however, may very well help to move theoretical and political debate beyond the sterile confines of regnant ideologies.
The Limits to Coercive Consociationalism in Northern Ireland
Authors: O'Leary Brendan
Published: December 2006

The merits of consociation as a means of solving the Northern Ireland conflict are presented through contrasting it with other ways of stabilizing highly divided political systems. Why voluntary consociation has been unsuccessful in Northern Ireland and unfortunately is likely to remain so is explained. The signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) must be understood against the background of the failure of previous consociational experiments. The AIA partly represented a shift in British strategy from voluntary to coercive consociationalism. The prospects for this coercive consociational strategy and variants on it are evaluated.

Irish history is something Irishmen should never remember, and Englishmen should never forget.
The Liberal Justification for Local Government: Values and Administrative Expediency
Authors: Chandler J. A.
Published: December 2006

There are several important justifications for autonomous units of local government, derived from the writings of J. S. Mill and later theories concerning the value of pluralism. These arguments fail to show that local government is a morally necessary, as opposed to expedient, adjunct to liberal-democratic government. The paper develops from J. S. Mill's ideas on liberty a more substantive justification for local government based on the principle that local government can be a means for ensuring that the determination of collective decisions are made solely by those people affected by the decision.
The National Character of Ernest Barker's Political Science
Authors: Stapleton Julia
Published: December 2006

This article considers the writings of Sir Ernest Barker (1874–1960), one of the first professional political scientists in Britain. It examines his background in Literae Humaniores and Modern History at late-Victorian Oxford, disciplines which respectively imparted the idealist and Whig framework of his later thought. It is argued that Barker's fusion of these two rival discourses – together with the concerns of early twentieth-century pluralism – reinforced powerful cultural motifs. As a consequence, the significance of political science seems to have outstretched the academic boundaries in which it increasingly became confined after his death.
From Authoritarianism to Democracy in South Korea
Authors: Cotton James
Published: December 2006

The South Korean case supports the contention that popular demands for political participation and the willingness of elites to recognize them are the likely consequences of modernization. The continuing transformation of the political system suggests that neither the corporatist nor the bureaucratic authoritarian models are applicable to Korea. Its non-democratic past is best seen as a response to specific factors, including Korea's position in the prevailing world system, the absence of countervailing elites as a result of war and rapid social transformation and the development of a strong and relatively independent state. The recent domestic and international impact of modernization has been to reverse the influence of these factors, though elements of the political culture and the contentious legacy of the past pose difficulties for the new democracy. Roh Tae-woo will need to be seen to be making a new beginning if the perennial legitimacy crisis of the Korean republic is to be overcome.
Mass Political Behaviour: Is There More to Learn?
Authors: Dunleavy Patrick
Published: December 2006

Research progress in voting studies and party competition, the mass media, work on social movements, interest groups and collective action, is reviewed for the last decade. Theoretical impetus in applied work seems weak in British studies; sub-fields of research are being pursued in isolation. In electoral studies at least there are signs of over-specialization and loss of valuable interconnections with the mainstream of political science. A number of pathways for improving the state of the art are identified, focusing on a renewal of theoretical input, the correction of some ‘system biases’, greater methodological pluralism and more integration of demand-side and supply-side studies.
The Pertinence of International Relations
Authors: Halliday Fred
Published: December 2006

Established as a distinct academic discipline at the end of the second world war, International Relations has above all been concerned with analysing relations between sovereign states - in the first instance, the causes of war between them and alternative forms of cooperation. Throughout its history, IR has been dominated by ‘realism’, an approach based on a juridical totalizing concept of the state. This denies the relevance of factors located within polities and societies and stresses the primacy of security issues in inter-state relations. More recent work in the field has sought to analyse the interaction of the domestic and the international and to explore the interaction of security with other, most evidently economic, factors. The relation of IR to political science is defined by the shared concern with the ‘pertinence’ of the international; that is, how far specific political and social systems are, and are not, affected and determined by factors beyond their frontiers and how these forms of international influence are changing in the contemporary world.
Liberalism and the Best-Judge Principle
Authors: Goodin Robert E.
Published: December 2006

The central tenet of liberalism has been taken to be value agnosticism, operationalized in the rule that each person must be taken to be the best judge of his own interests. There are, however, various ways to take that ‘best-judge principle’. The strongest form of the claim is here shown to be untenable. The most defensible weaker form is shown to provide only equivocal support at best for the sort of laissez-faire policy prescriptions standardly associated with liberal and neo-liberal political theory.
Politics and the State
Authors: Mason Andrew
Published: December 2006

Political theorists disagree about whether ‘politics' and ‘the political’ should be defined narrowly or broadly. Defenders of broad conceptions argue that narrow definitions exclude phenomena that ought to be included and lead us to misunderstand the relationship between different forces in society. Defenders of narrow conceptions argue that broad definitions collapse the distinction between the social and the political, and deprive politics of any distinctive identity. I shall argue that neither of these arguments is successful and that disputes over whether we should adopt a narrow or a broad view of politics are, for the most part, merely verbal.
Cooption and Power: Who Gets What from Formal Incorporation
Authors: Saward Michael
Published: December 2006

This paper examines the central generalizable factors which influence the flow of power within formal or ‘institutional’ cooptive arrangements. It examines the key resources of four different types of societal group and explores the utility of these resources in the light of an account of basic government needs. In the light of this, it explores a range of group–government dependencies. Its aim is to set out why some groups can get more and others less from formal government cooption, other things being equal. This enables us to isolate factors of central importance to various cooptive arrangements in quite different contexts.
The Just War Tradition and the Moral Character of Nuclear Deterrence
Authors: Acton Philip
Published: December 2006

The paper begins with a brief conceptualization of deterrence as a category of state institutionalized threats which are characterized by the risk of use of nuclear weapons. Using this as justification, it continues with a discussion of the principles of the just war tradition and, in the third section, examines a specific attempt to describe an alternative, more morally acceptable, structure of deterrence. The shortcomings of this attempt provide the springboard for a discussion of an alternative conceptualization of deterrence which moves beyond the bounds of the tradition's obsession with intent as the source of ethical evaluations of deterrence. The philosophical limits of the tradition, particularly its lack of a theory of rights, are finally discussed.
Lockean Self-Ownership: Towards a Demolition
Authors: Arneson Richard J.
Published: December 2006

Self-ownership is the moral principle that one ought to be left free to do whatever one chooses so long as non-consenting other persons are not thereby harmed, in specified ways. The principle is foundational for one tradition of political liberalism running from Locke to Nozick. This paper aims first to clarify this principle, in part by contrasting it with a kindred principle of ‘self-benefit’, and secondly to develop its implications for justified private property ownership. These implications are more meagre than is usually supposed. The principle is indeterminate in ways that undermine its claim to adequacy. Finally, further reasons for rejecting the self-ownership principle are suggested.
Rousseau's General Will: Freedom of a Particular Kind
Authors: Riley Patrick
Published: December 2006

Had Rousseau not been centrally concerned with freedom, some of the structural features of his political thought would be unaccountable. Above all, the notion of general will would not have become the core of his political philosophy. Rousseau's reasons for using ‘general will’ as his central political concept were essentially philosophical. The two terms of general will – ‘will’ and ‘generality’ – represent two main strands in his thought. ‘Generality’ stands for the rule of law, for civic education that draws us out of ourselves and towards the general (or common) good. ‘Will’ stands for Rousseau's conviction that civil association is ‘the most voluntary act in the world’, that ‘to deprive your will of all freedom is to deprive your actions of all morality’. And if one could ‘generalize’ the will, so that it ‘elects' only law, citizenship, and the common good, and avoids ‘willful’ self-love, then one would have a general will in Rousseau's particular sense. The distinctiveness of Rousseau's general will is further brought out through a comparison with Kant's ‘good will’ about which Rousseau would have felt severe doubts.
Reformist Consent and Political Obligation
Authors: Klosko George
Published: December 2006

It is commonly held that theories of political obligation based on consent, whether express or tacit, cannot account for most people's obligations; that political obligations generally stem from being born into specific societies rather than from voluntary choice. In recent years, consent theorists have turned to ‘reformist’ consent, arguing that consent theory could be rescued if political institutions were reformed to allow the possibility of widespread consent. Various possible reforms are examined and shown to be inadequate. The most obvious mechanism, ‘consent-or-leave’, is disqualified because it is coercive. Other mechanisms would be unable to induce widespread consent while preserving consent's essential voluntary character. I refer to the most plausible model as ‘Hobbes's choice’, though because it must unacceptably limit non-consentors' ability to defend themselves, it too is unsatisfactory.
Ridley's Prefectoral Administrative Function and the Case of Environment Canada
Authors: Brown M. Paul
Published: December 2006

This study tests the relevance of Ridley's ideal-type concept of the prefectoral administrative function in a departmental setting in Canada. It follows the pursuit of administrative decentralization within Environment Canada, a complex department which has thus far introduced three prefectoral administrative mechanisms – a Regional Board, a Regional Director and a Committee of Regional Executives – for this purpose. The sliding scale of authority which Ridley associates with the prefectoral administrative function makes eminent sense of the Environment Canada experience. The wider analytical reach of Ridley's concept of the prefectoral administrative function, and hence the greater theoretical relevance of the system in administrative theory and practice, is confirmed.
A Democratic Theory for a Democratizing World? A Re-Assessment of Popper's Political Realism
Authors: Norman Wayne J.
Published: December 2006

The core of Karl Popper's theory of democracy is re-examined here in light of some of his most recent thoughts on the subject. His discussion of the paradox of democracy contributes a novel – though ultimately unsuccessful – argument to current debates between right-based and goal-based theories of democracy. His theory is also of political interest in a world with so many emerging democracies, because he is much more concerned than most contemporary democratic theorists with the morality and politics of fragile and unstable democratic systems. Nevertheless, his provocative discussion of the dangers of democracies being voted out of existence fails to advise democrats on how to prevent such a situation or on what to do should one arise.
Weber's Ethic and the Spirit of Anti-Capitalism
Authors: Heins Volker
Published: December 2006

This article explores Max Weber's critique of socialism in relation to his own diagnosis of modern capitalism and its pathologies. Weber does not defend the capitalist ‘system’ directly against its left-wing critics. Rather, he identifies and denounces those social forces which threaten to undermine the liberal ‘spirit’ of capitalism. One of these forces turns out to be capitalism itself, insofar as it favours the bureaucratization and cartelization of business units, the closure of markets, and growing lobby-driven state intervention. Weber distinguishes two basic types of socialist criticism: pan-moralism and ultra-rationalism, both criticized for their lack of ‘intellectual honesty’. Pan-moralists look out for a project which is considered hopelessly unfeasible. Ultra-rationalists tend to tear down – unintentionally – the last barriers against the total bureaucratization of social life. Both the theoretical structure and some weak points of this Weberian counter-criticism are elaborated.