THE TRADITION AND HISTORY OF THE JURISDICTION OF THE RABBINICAL COURTS, WHICH EXISTED UNDER THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, THE BRITISH MANDATE AND THE PRESENT ISRAELI SYSTEM, HAVE NOT MADE THOSE COURTS AN ACCEPTED PART OF THE ISRAELI POLITICAL-LEGAL SYSTEM. THEY HAVE BEEN AND REMAIN ONE OF THE MOST PROBLEMATIC PARTS OF THE EVOLVING POLITICAL CULTURE OF ISRAEL. THE AUTHOR EXPLORES AND COMMENTS ON THE SITUATION.
THIS ESSAY PROVIDES AN EYE-WITNESS LOOK AT PRESENT-DAY CUBA AND ITS CHALLENGES. WHILE MOST CUBANS ARE STILL WARY OF THE UNREGULATED MARKET THEY HEAR HOLDS SWAY IN THE UNITED STATES, AND WHILE MANY ARE SLOW TO ACCEPT THE CLAIMS OF THE LARGE CUBAN EXPATRIATE COMMUNITY IN MIAMI, IT IS CLEAR THAT THE DIFFICULTY WITH WHICH MANY CUBANS SECURE BASIC NECESSITIES HAVE CAUSED MANY TO TRY TO CONCEIVE OF DIFFERENT FUTURES THAT MAY UNFOLD IN A POST-CASTRO CUBA. THE CONFLICT WITH WASHINGTON IS PROBABLY THE ONE BASIS OF THE CASTRO REGIME'S LEGITIMACY THAT STILL HAS MAJOR RESONANCE FOR CUBANS.
Public policies & activities have value to interested groups both as symbols & as media for the allocation of tangible values. Res in soc psychol, semantics, & pol'al sci indicates that group satisfaction with symbolic values occurs together with the following conditions: perception of threats in the environment, stereotypes & distorted information & perceptions, ineffectiveness in securing tangible resources politically, lack of org for pol'al action, relatively large numbers, & quiescence. Public policies purporting to regulate business, for example, Ply fail to produce their publicized tangible benefits for unorganized groups. The latter typically remain quiescent in the face of such deprivation though they continue to support the statutes as symbols, & politicians make use of this fact in election campaigns. The most widely publicized statutory provisions are typically most meaningless in terms of resource allocations. Statutes purporting to protect the unorganized may thus permit greater exploitation of tangible resources by organized groups than would be possible if the legal symbols were absent. AA-IPSA.
