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Two previous articles by N. Bobbio ('Is There a Marxist Theory of the State?' & 'Are There Alternatives to Representative Democracy?' Telos, 1978, 35, spring, 5-30) have aroused extensive debate focused primarily on whether there are alternatives to representative democracy. The relation of socialism to democracy has been a central problem of the left for many years, & has lately become a political problem, the heirs of social democracy showing little trace of socialism & the heirs of Leninism equally little trace of democracy. What is now needed is a definition of democracy in which decisions of interest to a collectivity are made by all members. This leads to need for specific procedures for realizing the collectivity's will. It should not be taken for granted that democracy is better than autocracy; three main grounds, however, can be offered for its preference-it gives liberty to the individual as an ethical being, it offers correction for the abuse of power, & it relies on the judgment of those whose interests are most affected. These arguments all become even stronger in a socialist society. It is not clear, however, that a socialist society can be democratic; one should be cautious, given the tendency of both capitalist & socialist societies to have economic decisions made autocratically. W. H. Stoddard.

The Bolivian coup of last July violently interrupted a two-and-a-half-year experiment in democracy that was showing heartening signs of success. Indeed, following twelve years of military rule, democracy had begun to reopen the developing society's doors to some new possibilities for social change – possibilities that were brutalized by the military's seizure of power.The new regime soon gained international notoreity as news leaked out of cocaine smuggling by top junta members; of the Argentine military's technical and material assistance to the coup; and the unprecedented, for Bolivia, scale of human rights violations and repression accompanying the military takeover. Despite Bolivia's reputation as a chronically coup-ridden country, it has become apparent that, in many ways, this coup is different.

Contents are grouped under the headings: The expenditures of American government; Government finances and the economy; Taxation and democracy; The citizen and government finances.

In Gabriel A. Almond's famous typology of political systems, first expounded in 1956, he distinguishes three types of Western democratic systems: Anglo-American political systems (exemplified by Britain and the United States), Continental European political systems (France, Germany, and Italy), and a third category consisting of the Scandinavian and Low Countries. The third type is not given a distinct label and is not described in detail; Almond merely states that the countries belonging to this type "combine some of the features of the Continental European and the Anglo-American" political systems, and "stand somewhere in between the Continental pattern and the Anglo-American." Almond's threefold typology has been highly influential in the comparative analysis of democratic politics, although, like any provocative and insightful idea, it has also been criticized. This research note will discuss the concept of "consociational democracy" in a constructive attempt to refine and elaborate Almond's typology of democracies.