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MALADMINISTRATION IS PARTLY AN ACQUIRED TECHNIQUE AND PARTLY A MATTER OF INSTINCT. THE REPORTS OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONER PROVIDE A USEFUL BODY OF CASE STUDIES FOR THE YOUNG PUBLIC SERVANTS WHO IS KEEN TO SECURE A GRASP OF THE FINER POINTS OF MALPRACTICE. NO GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT HAS YET BEEN FOUND CAPABLE OF MALADMINISTRATION IN ITS PURE FORM BUT CLOSE APPROXIMATIONS ABOUND.

In this magisterial study, complemented by detailed charts and maps, Hodgson traces and interprets the historical development of Islamic civilization from before the birth of Muhammad to the middle of the twelfth century. "This is a nonpareil work, not only because of its command of its subject but also because it demonstrates how, ideally, history should be written."--"The New Yorker"

Until the seventeenth century of our era, the Islamicate society that was associated with the Islamic religion was the most expansive society in the Afro-Eurasian hemisphere and had the most influence on other societies. This was in part because of its central location, but also because in it were expressed effectively certain cultural pressures–cosmopolitan and egalitarian (and anti-traditional)– generated in the older and more central lands of this society.

It has been long pointed out that the destinies of the various sections of mankind began to be interrelated long before the twentieth century, with its global wars and cold wars; or even the nineteenth century, the century of European world hegemony. Here we will study certain of the historical ways in which these destinies were intertwined; in this way we may distinguish more valid modes of tracing large-scale history and of comparing the societies involved in it, from a number of popular but unsound modes of trying to do so. I shall speak mostly of the ages before modern times, noting only briefly at the end of the paper certain crucial ways in which modern interrelations among human societies have been different from earlier ones.

IN GREAT BRITIAN, THE VIEW PROPOSED BY CHARTER 88 AND OTHER CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMERS IS THAT THEY NEED A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION. THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS: HOW WOULD THEY GO ABOUT CODIFYING THE MAIN RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES THAT LEAD THEM TO CALL THE SYSTEM ONE OF RESPONSIBLE PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT; HOW ARE THE COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL CONVENTIONS TO BE FORMULATED AND RELATED TO EACH OTHER; HAVE CHANGES IN THE ORGANIZATION OF PARLIAMENT AND THE EXECUTIVE MODIFIED ANY OF THE TRADITIONAL RULES? IT ATTEMPTS TO ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS THROUGH AN EXAMINATION OF REMOVABILITY, UNANIMITY AND SOLIDARITY, ANSWERABILTIY, RESIGNATION, AND BUREAUCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY.