Suchergebnisse

This comment is in response to Frederic L. Pryor (2000). "The Millennium Survey: How Economists View the U.S. Economy in the 21st Century.7rdquo; The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. 59 (January), pp. 3‐33.

A response to Jon Wiener's (1998) analysis of the growing opposition to tenure argues that his account of university administrators' cost-inspired increase in the use of nontenured faculty overlooks several more general pressures against tenure. These include the ending of mandatory retirement, the litigation risks of denying tenure to tenure-track professors, increased competition in the academic labor market, & threatened & actual federal funding losses. Further, the protection of academic freedom, which is usually named as tenure's strongest justification, can be achieved through other means. Weiner's advocacy of faculty unionism is deemed faulty. E. Blackwell

Considers the intellectual history of the journal Commentary in light of its 50th anniversary. Only 8 of the 72 writers asked to participate in a symposium for its Nov 1996 special anniversary issue could not be classified as conservatives. This ideological uniformity is lamented as a consequence of the vitriolic polemics launched against the New Left by editor Norman Podhoretz in the 1960s & 1970s, & the rise of Reaganism during the 1980s. A restoration of something like the old Commentary is judged as unlikely given the erosion of a coherent extraacademic intellectual community of readers & writers. It is concluded that the journal should discontinue its anti-Left bent to seek & recognize common ground with its ideological opponents. D. M. Smith

Reevaluates a previous theory that democratic politics has a Left-Right rhythm that results in a leftward drift over time due to failure of conservative governments to undo leftist administrations' reforms (eg, Wrong, 1974). Although right-wing success in the US & UK during the 1980s-early 1990s challenged the theory, recent political turns have revived it. Current conditions that both support & contradict the thesis are discussed. Continuing strong conservative self-identification in the US, steps to the Right by the US Democratic & UK Labor Party, & strong conservative attacks on the welfare state suggest that Left-Right party differences in the context of lower economic growth are also apparent, indicating that both rhythm & drift could characterize the future of politics in industrialized countries. E. Blackwell

Hopeful developments in East-West relations should not detract from the possibility that world events will turn again to a renewal of the cold war. It is no accident that detente occurred during a stridently anticommunist administration. Ronald Reagan's rhetoric was aimed at the Soviets rather than at international communism, the target of some past administrations. It is argued that the universal appeal of communism has dissipated, comparing communist parties in Europe in the postwar era with the current period. The history of the cold war is briefly sketched, including its impact in the Third World. Reagan's tactic of reviving old cold war slogans against Third World countries is discussed. A. Waters