Suchergebnisse

The US 1968 elections represent a departure from the traditional Amer pattern. For the first time since the Civil War, 3 presidential candidates presented themselves to the voters in all the States of the Union. This points to a malaise in Amer pot & to a feeling that the 2 big parties do not adequately represent the electorate. 3rd parties in Amer history have played the role of promoting new ideas that were eventually enacted by one of the 2 big parties. But they faced overwhelming odds & did not last more than a few yrs. A picture of the 2 big parties in America is presented: their composition, org & the soc & pol'al forces they represent. The history of Amer 3rd parties is traced from the early 19th' cent until the 1968 election. The parties at the present time, org'al changes that have taken place in recent yrs, new cleavages in Amer society & new problems & new concerns of the electorate are examined. The final section examines the electoral Coll & its effect on pol'al life in America. The fact that Amer elections have traditionally been decided by a narrow margin of votes, it is concluded, shows that the 2 parties are very similar & that they are pragmatic rather than ideological. The broad soc composition of each party maintained the unity of the republic. But the past few yrs have witnessed a fragmentation of Amer society, & movements of the right & left demand to be heard, whether within each of the 2 parties & or by the electorate itself. The G. Wallace campaign & the votes he obtained showed that the demand for change cannot be ignored by pol'al leaders. The discussions in the Democratic Party about a democratization of the decision-making process prove that a reevaluation is already under way. Radical changes in the Democratic Party will be bound to be followed by similar changes in the Republican Party. It is quite possible that in the future state- & nation-wide primaries will decide the choice of the President, thus changing & democratizing the system of presidential elections. A. Peskin.

Each Time a crisis looms in the European Community, one hears the question: "Has the European Community passed the point of no return or will this crisis end it?"1 The Community of six states, created in Luxembourg in 1952 and expanded in Brussels in 1958, has survived each of these crises and is now reaching political maturity. The question becomes less "Will the Community survive?" and more "What kind of political and economic entity will the Community become?"

On April 8, 1965, the representatives of the six member states (Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands) of the European Communities signed the "Treaty Establishing a Single Council and a Single Commission of the European Communities." The treaty's principal object is to replace the executive bodies of the three Communities, i.e., the Commissions of the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community (E.C.S.C.) by a single European Commission. At the same time, the Councils of Ministers of these three Communities are to be merged into one Council. This Merger Treaty is intended to be the first step toward the ultimate merger of the E.C.S.C, instituted by the Treaty of Paris of April 18, 1951, and the E.E.C. and EURATOM, instituted by the Eome Treaties of March 25, 1957.

It is now over ten years since the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocol were completed.