Reading Scientific American is a different experience from reading other American magazines. The reader feels he is up against something formidably, though quite genially, solid. It is not only that science itself is factual, its effects enormous, and its establishment (comparatively) united. The impression the magazine gives of its subject field derives in part from its own structure, its mode of being, its style. It patrols such a large beat, the expanding sphere of human awareness, and it seems to be actually expanding that sphere itself. And yet one couldn't call it pompous. It is just consciously, but not self-consciously, big.
In: International review of the Red Cross: humanitarian debate, law, policy, action, Volume 15, Issue 168, p. 135-135
ISSN: 1607-5889
On 17 February 1975, the President of the ICRC Executive Board, Mr. Roger Gallopin, met the American Secretary of State, Mr. Henry Kissinger, while the latter was on a visit to Geneva. The talks centred on the ICRC's humanitarian work throughout the world. The Secretary of State expressed the United States Government's appreciation of the tasks accomplished by the ICRC and, in particular, its efforts to promote international humanitarian law.
ABSTRACTContrary to a view commonly held, the primary export sectors of Latin America did not lose power when industrial production for the internal market was accelerated in some countries of the area after the world economic crisis of 1930. Although based on labour intensive manufacturing for the internal market, the new model of development did not allow wages to increase at a rate capable of promoting a rise in demand for manufactured goods. This may appear surprising in the light of the usual interpretation of the post‐1930 process of industrialization as designed to meet an internal demand for goods which could no longer be imported due to balance of payments deficits. In fact, the satisfaction of internal demand was only a secondary objective, or, rather, it was instrumental to achieve the primary objective of the new model of growth, which was the need to find new investment opportunities for capital accumulation.With the exception of Argentina, where a relative shortage of labour prevailed, the existence of a labour surplus in all the other Latin American economies considerably weakened the bargaining power of the workers and allowed for a rapid capital accumulation. The basic stability of the pre‐crisis distribution of national income between profits and wages was thus maintained. Furthermore, the presence of a labour surplus helped to resolve – by eliminating it – the conflict assumed to have taken place between those groups which derived their profits from the export of primary goods and those groups whose profits came from investment in industry. In other words, the presence of a labour surplus acted as a mechanism by which the pre‐crisis system could be easily adapted. This article analyses some of the economic and political techniques through which that adaptation was implemented.
The study employs a questionnaire instrument on the adversary system to compare respondent attitudes from the Tokyo and Minnesota district courts. Empirical verification of the Japanese and American models of conflict resolution and social control developed in the research is accomplished by comparing the responses of the two groups to modal statements about defense counsel roles arrayed in a continuum from administrative (counsel as coach) to due process (protect the client) roles. When urbanization and respondent's role (prosecuting judge, defense attorney) are controlled for, the Japanese reject the extreme implications of the adversary system, particularly in terms of the due process notion, while the American group supports the due process statements. The study corroborates the view that culturally generated value differences may have important impact on conflict resolution and social control, and by implication, international conflict resolution behavior.
Developing a line of thought from an earlier essay (Morse, 1973: II, 11-55), this paper examines some points of departure for a comparative analysis of urbanization in Latin America and the United States during the nineteenth century. Two assumptions guide the inquiry: first, that the "external dependency" thesis so frequently invoked to explain Latin American urban development easily leads to dogmatism; second, that geoeconomic factors must be perceived as interacting with those of the sociopolitical order.To set broad guidelines for our effort we might construe the economic and institutional development of the United States and Latin America along the lines of two tensions or counterpoints.United States.Here the North and West with their commercial agriculture, trading energies, and industrialization faced the commercially and financially dependent South, its socioeconomic organization conditioned by the plantation system, slavery, and export agriculture.
L. J. Sharpe's two-part article ('American Democracy Reconsidered' in this Journal, III [1973], 1–28,129–68) is an important and controversial one. He questions many of the orthodox interpretations of American urban politics, suggests that some of the supposedly well-established observations about British and American contrasts may boil down to bits of conventional wisdom, and raises many points about social justice and democracy, which are at the centre of everyday practical politics but which sometimes slide from view in modern 'value free' social science. The article will hopefully attract the critical attention of American writers, but meanwhile here are some reflections from a slightly different point of view on some of the themes of the article.
SUBURBS VOTE MORE REPUBLICAN THAN CITIES BUT LESS SO THAN RU AREAS, YET ALL 3 LOCALES MOVED IN PARALLEL WAYS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS OF 1948-64. THE STATUS OF SUBURBANITES DISPLAYS A VARIETY MUCH LIKE OTHER AMERICANS. CITY & SUBURB SUGGEST 2 SPECTRA WHOSE CONGRUENCE IS NOT COMPLETE BUT MUCH OVERLAPPED. THE DEGREE OF CONGRUENCE DIFFERS AMONG SMSA'S & WITH TIME. SUCH DIVERSITY SUGGESTS DIFFERENT STAGES OF CONFLICT OVER POLICY IN SUBURBS, ROOTED IN STATUS DIFFERENCES, IE, DIFFERENT STATUS STRATA HAVE DIFFERENT POLICY PREFERENCES. DEPENDING UPON THE RATE OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE, STATUS DIFFERENCES, & THE POLICY, SUBURBS REFLECT A DEVELOPMENTAL MODEL OF POLICY SHIFT (BUCOLIC ACQUIESCENCE, SUBURBAN MUSHROOMING, SUBURBAN MOBILIZATION, SUBURBAN ACQUIESCENSE). SUCH POLITICS IS EVERYWHERE CONSTRAINED BY EXTERNAL FORCES. SPECIAL DISTRICTS COJOIN SUBURBAN SEGMENTS TO PROVIDE SERVICES, INFORMAL TIES OF PROFESSIONALS SPREAD NEW IDEAS, & STATE LAWS LIMIT LOCAL SUBURBAN POLICY OUTPUTS. RECENT REFORM EFFORTS AT REDISTRIBUTING RESOURCES IN EDUCATION ILLUSTRATE 'VERTICAL AXIS' INFLUENCE. SUBURBS CAN INFLUENCE THE NATIONAL POLITICAL SYSTEM IF THEY REFLECT A COMMON SET OF POLICY VALUES. THEY CONSTITUTE A LARGER SHARE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORATE, WHICH IS MORE BALANCED IN ITS PARTY CHOICES THAN THE MORE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL ELECTORATE OF SUBURBIA. BUT IN CONGRESSIONAL ROLL CALLS ON MAJOR ISSUES OVER THE LAST DECADE, NO SEPARATE SUBURBAN PRESENCE IS DETECTABLE; RATHER, PARTY EXPLAINS MORE THAN LOCALES. ANOTHER LACK OF EVIDENCE OF A RECOGNIZABLE SUBURBAN INFLUENCE IS THE LACK OF A COHERENT NATIONAL POLICY TOWARD SUCH LOCALES. SUCH POLICY HAS BEEN HELPFUL TO SUBURBS ONLY ACCIDENTALLY. VOTING & STATUS ANALYSIS ARE DRAWN FROM DATA OF SEVERAL HUNDRED SUBURBS. 3 FIGURES, 1 TABLE. AA.
CLASSROOM GAMES WARRANT ACCEPTANCE AS AN ADEQUATE ALTERNATIVE MODE OF INSTRUCTION IN A BASIC SERVICE COURSE. A SPRING 1970 EXPERIMENTAL OFFERING OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS AT ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY UNDER TWO COMPETING FORMATS IS ANALYZED. FORMATS USING LECTURES AND CLASSROOM GAMES RESPECTIVELY ARE COMPARED IN TERMS OF FACT AND CONCEPT MASTERY, AND OF STUDENT EVALUATION.
VIEWS AMERICAN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST AS A CONVERGENCE OF MANY FACTORS. AMONG THESE ARE THE RISE OF NATIONALISM, THE DISCOVERY OF OIL, THE CREATION OF ISRAEL, AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE SOVIET UNION. ALSO LOOKS AT THE POSSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. FOR THE UNITED STATES THESE MIGHT INCLUDE AN ALLIANCE WITH ISRAEL TO STABILIZE THE ISRAELI BORDERS.
THE TWO STRANDS OF THOUGHT OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF THE USA, POPULAR SOVEREIGHTY AND PLURALISM, ARE BASED ON THE SAME PREMISES AND ARE CONSISTENT. THEY ARE UNIQUELY AMERICAN AND NOTHING IN THE SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCE OF US GOVERNMENT RENDERS THEM OBSOLETE. MODERN LITERATURE ON DEMOCRATIC THEORY IS STILL CONCERNED WITH THE TWO, BUT COMTEMPORARY RADICAL APPROACHES ARE DISPLACING THEM.
In: Armed forces & society: official journal of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society : an interdisciplinary journal, Volume 2, Issue 1, p. 63-80
AMERICAN MILITARG OFFICERS WHO ADVANCE TO THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF RESPONSIBILITY NEED TO ACQUIZE BROADER PERSPECTIVES AND INCREASED SENSITIVITY TO THE LARGER IMPLICATIONS OF POLITICL-MILITARY POLICY-MAKING. THERE ARE IMPLICATIONS THAT ADVANCE, EDUCATIONAL EKPERIENCES PRODUCE PERSONS BETTER PREPARED TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITIES.
A tentative & speculative discussion of the corruption of political discourse by the language of sports. The all-pervading use of sports terminology to describe & interpret political phenomena coincides with the transformation of sports into a giant industry. It is suggested that this is grounded on the economic dynamics upon which the sports industry is based. The use of sports language comes at a time when American capitalism depends on mass internalization of a legitimating ideology asserting the scientific, impartial quality of economic decisions, of overall economic plans, & the competence of those making them. The distinction between active participants & the mass of passive spectators is seen as a secondary implication. The use of sports terms encourages one to view political activity in mainly instrumental terms, the end being to win. Debate over ends is transformed into the technical search for the best strategy. The transformation of politics into a quasiscientific technical activity (like American football) tends also to justify the exclusion of those not having the needed technical expertise from the political process. A. Rubins.
OUTLINES THE NATURE OF MOST AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH AND CONCLUDES THAT AMERICA'S POLITICAL CULTURE AND THE NATURE OF ITS URBAN DEVELOPMENT HAS FRAMED THE NATURE OF ITS CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK IN THIS FIELD. SINCE THE NATURE OF AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN URBAN DEVELOPMENT ARE IN MANY WAYS DISTINCT, THE AMERICNA RESEARCH IS OF LIMITED APLICABILITY OT THOSE CONCERNED WITH EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT.
With the end of the Vietnam War & the recent events in Portugal, the prospects for democracy in Western Europe & the Third World countries are being increasingly discussed. Three Dissent editors--B. Dentich, E. Kohak, & D. H. Wrong--each with sharply defined & distinct opinions--discuss some pertinent matters: Does the survival of democracy depend on the continued exertion of American power? Is American power a barrier to the growth & extension of democracy? How do internal political developments in Europe, such as the electoral blocs in Italy & France between Communist & Socialist parties, affect the prospects for democracy? According to Dentich, prospects for radical ruptures with the existing order "depend primarily on the domestic politics of a given country & only secondarily on the reaction of the two superpowers." Kohak believes that "American power ... is the only force capable of assuring the survival of democracy in our time." Among other thoughts, Wrong makes the point that "the end of the American Empire would have come, though less ignominiously, even without Vietnam." Modified HA.