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Book Reviews in this titleAUSTRALIA'S AGE OF IRON: History and Archaeology By R. Ian Jack and Aedeen Cremin. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press and Sydney University Press, 1994, pp. xiv+175, Illustrated. Thirteen maps. $39.95.BRISBANE: The Aboriginal Presence 1824–1860 Edited by Rod Fisher. Kelvin Grove: Brisbane History Group Papers No 11, 1992, pp. 106. Illustrated. Two maps. $20.AUSTRALIA'S FIRST LADY By Lennard Bickel. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991, pp. xii +219. $34.95IRISH CONVICT LIVES Edited by Bob Reece. Sydney: Crossing Press, 1993, pp. x+266, illustrated. No price given.WAR ON THE HOMEFRONT: State Intervention in Queensland 1938–1948 By Kay Saunders. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993. pp. ix + 190. $29.95.CROWN OR COUNTRY: The Traditions of Australian Republicanism Ediled by David Headon, James Warden and Bill Gammage. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1994, pp. xiv + 197. Illustrated. $24.95.VIETNAM: The Australian Dilemma By Terry Burstall. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993, pp. xxv + 329. Illustrated. Sixteen maps. $19.95.FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE The Federal Coalition Edited by Brian Costar. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1994, pp. xii + 163. $24.95.EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS: Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management in Australia By Margaret Gardner and Gill Palmer. Melbourne: Macmillan, 1992, pp. xii+ 522. $39.95.I WAS A TEENAGE FASCIST By David Greason. Melbourne: McPhee Gribble/penguin, 1994. $16.95.THE OXFORD HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND Edited by Geoffrey W. Rice. Second revised edition. Auckland: Ogord University Press, 1993, pp. xviii i 755. Eleven tables. Four maps. Eight graphs $39.95STUDYING NEW ZEALAND HISTORY By G. A Wood. Second edition Revised by Simon Cauchi and G. A. Wood. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, 1992. pp. viii ‐+ 145. No price given.EUROPE JUSTINIAN By John Moorhead. London and New York: Longman, 1994, pp. ix + 202. Np price givenMIRACLES AND THE PULP PRESS DURING THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION: The Battle of the Frogs and Fairford's Flies By Jerome Friedman. London: University College London Press, 1993, pp. xv+304. Illustrated. $39.95.THE COMMODITY CULTURE OF VICTORIAN ENGLAND: Advertising and Spectacle 1851–1914 By Thomas Richards. London: Verso, 1991, pp. 306. $37.9Spb.CLASS AND ETHNICITY: Irish Catholics in England 1880–1939 By Steven Fielding. Buckingham, England: Open University Press, 1993, pp. mi + 180. No price given.THE POLlTICS OF IMMIGRATION AND "RACE" RELATIONS IN POST‐WAR BRITAIN By Zig Luyton‐Henry. Ogord: Blackwell, 1992, pp. xvii + 266. $34.95 pb.GOVERNMENT, INDUSTRY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY By Peter Barberis and Timothy May. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1993, pp. viii+ 260. $45.00.SOCIAL CHANGE IN CONTEMPORARY BRITAIN Edited by Nicholas Abercrombie and Alan Warde. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992, pp xi + 189. $32.9Spb.EUROPE IN OUR TIME A History 1945–1992 By Walter L. uqueur. New York: Penguin Books, 1992, pp. xrii + 617. US$14.CONTEMPORARY FRANCE By Hilary P. M. Winchester. Longman Group UK Limited, 1993, pp. xiii + 273, illustrated with photographs, maps, tables, $16.IMPERIAL GERMANY 1871–1914: Economy, Society, Culture and Politics By Volker Berghahn Providence/Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1993, pp. xvii + 362. NO price givenTHE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS SINCE 1969 A Party in Power and Opposition Gerard Braunthal. Second revised edition. BoulderBart Francisco/Oxford: Westview Press, 1994. pp. xiii + 402. Tables and charts. $54.95.WHAT ABOUT THE WORKERS? Workers and the Transition to Capitalism in Russia By Simon Clarke, Peter Fairbrother, Michael Burawoy and Pavel Krotov. London: Verso, 1993, pp. 241. No price given.REST OF WORLD THE GUERRILLA WARS OF CENTRAL AMERICA: Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala By Saul Landau. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993, pp. xiii + 222. Four maps. $49.45.A CRITICAL STUDY OF BINI AND YORUBA VALUE SYSTEMS OF NIGERIA IN CHANGE: Culture, Religion and the Self By Emmanuel D. Babatunde. Lampeter, Dyfed, Wales: me Edwin Mellen Press, 1992, pp. 283. No price given.IMPERIAL AFFINITIES: Nineteenth Century Analogies and Exchanges Between India and Ireland By S. B. Cook. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1993, pp. 162, Rs 195 (approx $9.00).DENG XIAOPING AND THE MAKING OF MODERN CHINA By Richard Evans. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1993, pp. xi + 339:$39.95.TENNOZAN: The Battle of Okinawa and the Atomic Bomb By George Feifer. New York: Ticknor & Field 1992, pp. xvii + 622. Illustrated. $25.IDEAS DARWINISM, WAR AND HISTORY: The Debate Over the Biology of War From the "Origin of Species" to the First World War By Paul Crook. Cambridge, New York, and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. xii + 306. $49.95.PROSPECTS FOR DEMOCRACY: North, South, East, West Edited by David Held. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993, pp. xi + 412. $45 cloth; $14 pb.RACE, NATION, CLASS: Ambiguous Identities By Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein London, New York: Verso, 1991, pp. vii+232. $32.95.CULTURAL HISTORY By Roger Chartier. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1993, pp. 209. $39.95pb.CULTURES IN CONFLICT By Urs Bitterli, translated by Ritchie Robertson. Oqord: Polity Press, 1993, pp. 215. pb. $39.95.MARC BLOCH: A Life in History By Carole Fink Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 324. $17.95.

Human freedom and prosperity have varied enormously among and within countries and regions and have changed drastically over short periods. Social sciences research has begun to illuminate how norms and cultures, as well as legal, political, economic, and social institutions, affect freedom and prosperity, but our understanding of how and why these institutions change remains meager. The researchers who gathered at the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 for a Sackler Symposium sought to give a kick-start to the study of institutional dynamics.

The papers presented vary both in their research methods and in the questions they address. The methods range from theory to econometric studies to detailed cases studies, each seeking to highlight some aspect of how institutions change and what accounts for the differences in institutions that emerge in different settings.

Two of the papers in this volume are analyses of stochastic dynamic systems. One captures a process of contagion by which the new norms governing bilateral exchange may invade a population and become widespread. The other studies the evolution of authority in a society with far-sighted decision makers, who sometimes rationally allow erosion in their long-term control to promote sufficiently better short-term outcomes.

The first of these is Peyton Young's “The Dynamics of Social Innovation” (1), which studies the evolution of norms to be used in bilateral interactions. Agents in Young's network model correspond to nodes that interact with their immediate neighbors and earn payoffs in each interaction that depend on how each party behaves. The agents experiment and learn, so behavior in the system can evolve. The paper discusses how the topology of the network, characteristics of individual learning processes, and the size of the potential improvement affects whether norms are adopted, and how quickly. It turns out that a critical property that superior norms (ones that leads to higher payoffs for all) must have for “fast” adoption is that it must be possible for all members of some local clusters of nodes to profit by adopting the norm, even when the other agents in the network do not adopt. This determinant in turn depends on the size of the gains to adopting the norm, as well as on the nature of the network. The nature of the learning process matters, too. For example, too much experimentation can cause a local group to unlearn their superior norm before it has a chance to spread into the rest of the network.

The second is “A Political Model of Social Evolution” by Daron Acemoglu, Georgy Egorov, and Konstantin Sonin (2), which studies how undemocratic and authoritarian regimes may become progressively more democratic. In their model, choices are made by a changing set of individual decision makers, who rule according to a voting system. Sometimes expanding participation can lead to greater short-run payoffs at the expense of less control in the longer term, and authoritarian regimes may sometimes accept immediate gains even at the risk of reduced control over the longer run. The model provides a framework for studying how the initial state of the system, the payoffs to different actions, and the nature of voting systems affect long-run outcomes of the system. In particular, outcomes can be history-dependent, and change emerges as the combined result of random events and actual choices by the ruling class.

Four of the papers provide general schemata for thinking about a set of issues, from regional and national political leadership and how it affects the evolution of democracy, to the role of international institutions, to the role of norms in promoting economic development both overall and at different stages in development.

Roger Myerson's “Toward a Theory of Leadership and State-Building” (3) surveys his analyses of the problem of nation building, which has both ancient and modern application. The fundamental issues in Myerson's perspective revolve around problems of leadership. On one hand, to gain followers, new leaders must successfully distribute patronage, particularly in times when and places where following the new leader is dangerous. However, the system also needs to provide discipline for the leader, so that promises are kept once the leader gains power. Additionally, for democracy to thrive, it needs to encourage the development of leaders who can establish the credentials and following needed to challenge the existing authority. The paper develops a wide perspective on the groundwork that needs to be laid for nation building, that is, for promoting the development of systems that can evolve into functioning democracies.

Stephen Krasner's “Changing State Structures: Outside In” (4) considers different situations in which, and channels through which, some states deploy purposive strategies to exercise power over other states. His classification covers (i) contracting with basically voluntary agreement of the state that is subject to the influence, (ii) coercion that forces a weaker state to take a particular action or substantially limits its choice set, (iii) institutional power, whereby the stronger state sets the rules of the game of decision-making in the weaker state, (iv) constitutive power, whereby the stronger state establishes the international system within which the weaker state must operate, and (v) productive power, which alters the identities and capabilities of actors in the weaker state. These provide a useful taxonomy and examples for thinking about the interaction between different countries’ institutions and international institutions and organizations.

“Development, Social Norms, and Assignment to Task” by Marcel Fafchamps (5) traces some broad trends in the dynamics of social norms that are required to support different stages in the process of economic development. Developing economies move to greater specialization of labor, requiring more complex interactions to determine efficient allocation of labor to tasks. In the least-developed economies, production occurs in almost self-contained households where workers must be jacks-of-all-trades. As economies develop, families become the basis for small firms that use and eventually employ labor with specialized skills and come to be supervised by the owner or entrepreneur. Finally, as the volume of market transactions grows, large firms arise, with a managerial hierarchy with delegated authority to supervise workers with longer-term employment contracts. Fafchamps examines how the governance of the transactions with workers needs to differ in the different stages, whether the norms and practices appropriate for different stages can coexist or will clash during the dynamics of development, and what this implies for the prospects of successful and speedy development.

In “Individualism, Innovation, and Long-Run Growth,” Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Gerard Roland (6) provide direct and indirect empirical tests supporting the hypothesis that cultures attaching greater social status to innovators experience higher rates of innovation and economic growth. The direct tests use certain cultural scores as independent variables and growth rates as dependent variables. The indirect tests use genetic distance as an instrument for culture, with closer genetic proximity to the US population implying greater cultural similarity.

The last two papers study the roles of two particular but important institutions of development: law (in opposition to custom) and brokerage (facilitating exchange across boundaries).

“Legal Reform in the Presence of a Living Custom: An Economic Approach,” by Gani Aldashev, Jean-Philippe Platteau, and Sake Wham (7) addresses the ability of statutes that empower traditionally disadvantaged groups, such as women, to promote development-enhancing change, even when the statutes conflict with entrenched social norms. Although full enforcement of such laws is rare, by creating an implicit threat to the traditional authorities—loss of face when their decisions are overruled by higher authorities and reduction in the size of the population over which they rule as the disadvantaged populations find better outside options—formal law can shift the bargaining power of parties and lead to changes in outcomes. The paper constructs a theoretical model and offers examples in support.

Finally, “Stabilizing Brokerage” by Katherine Stovel, Benjamin Golub, and Eva Meyersson Milgrom (8) examines one of the most important and puzzling institutions that promotes change through the exchange of goods, services, information, and practices across an otherwise disconnected social network, from one isolated group to another. Agents who do this are called brokers, and their role is problematic. Each side in the transaction may suspect the broker's integrity or impartiality; therefore, brokerage can be fragile. The paper examines and compares three mechanisms that can counter this problem: (i) isolation of brokers into a distinct social group, separated from the transactors, (ii) complete capture of brokers by one side of the transaction, and (iii) grafting of brokerage functions on to other organizations that have separate motives to develop and sustain a reputation for trustworthiness. The authors analyze theoretical considerations and discuss examples of all three, but the inherent fragility of brokerage creates a natural dynamic in which relatively frequent failures are followed by change.

The variety of approaches, in terms of both questions and methods, highlights the richness of this area of research and indeed made for lively discussion at the conference. We hope this collection of papers will serve to broker ideas across disciplines and eventually to deepen social scientists’ understanding of the process of institutional change.

Book reviewed in this article:THE HOVERING GIANT: U.S. Responses to Revolutionary Change in Latin America. By Cole BlasierRATIONALITY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: Contributions to the Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences. Edited by S.I. Benn and G.W. MortimorePOLITICAL OBLIGATION. By Richard E. FlathmanELECTORAL BEHAVIOR A Comparative Handbook. Edited by Richard RoseABORIGINES IN COLONIAL SOCIETY, 1788–1850: From 'Noble Savage' to 'Rural Pest'. Edited by Jean WoolmingtonBLACK VIEWPOINTS: The Aboriginal Experience. Edited by Colin Tatz assisted by Keith McConnochieKANT AND THE PROBLEM OF HISTORY. By William A. GalstonTHE MAKING OF INDIAN POLICY 1853–1865 Relations of the Court af Directors, the India Board, the India Office and the Government of India. By Prashanto K. ChatterjiTOLERATION. By Preston KingTHE GERMAN PUBLIC MIND IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: A Social History of German Political Sentiments, Aspirations and Ideas. By Frederick HertzINSIDE THE MONSTER: Writings on the United States and American Imperialism. By José Martí. Edited and with an introduction and notes by Philip S. FonerPUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION IN AUSTRALIA A Reader. Edited by R.N. Spann and G.R. CurnowPROBLEMS IN AUSTRALIAN HISTORY Religion in Early Australia: The Problem of Church and State. Edited with an introduction by Jean WoolmingtonW. DILTHEY: SELECTED WRITINGS. Edited, translated and introduced by H.P. RickmanTHE LAW IN CRISIS Bridges of Understanding. By C.G. WeeramantryBROADCASTING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA. By Ian K. MackayNEW DIMENSIONS OF WORLD POLITICS. Edited by Geoffrey L. Goodwin and Andrew LinklaterTHE CABINET OFFICE TO 1945. By S.S. WilsonFREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE A Study of the Political Ideas of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind. By Judith N. ShklarTHE SOCIAL PROBLEM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF ROUSSEAU. By John CharvetJEAN BODlN AND THE RISE OF ABSOLUTIST THEORY. By Julian H. FranklinBLACK ARMADA. By Rupert LockwoodSIR MATTHEW NATHAN British Colonial Governor and Civil Servant. By Anthony P. HaydonTHE ART OF ANTICIPATION: Values and Methods in Forecasting. Edited by Solomon Encel, Pauline K. Marstrand and William PagePROGRESS AND PROBLEMS IN SOCIAL FORECASTING. Edited by Christopher Freeman, Marie Jahoda and Ian MilesTHE TRANSFER OF POWER, 1942–7, vol. VI, THE POST‐WAR PHASE New Moves by the Labour Government, 1 August 1945–22 March 1946. Edited by Nicholas Mansergh and Penderel MoonU.S. POLICY AND STRATEGIC INTERESTS IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC. By Yuan‐Li WuFOIJNDATIONS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE. By Peter B. HarrisINTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL SCIENCE. Third edition. By Carlton Clymer Rodee, Totton James Anderson, Carl Quimby Christol and Thomas H. GreeneTHE STRANGE NEUTRALITY, SOVIET‐JAPANESE RELATIONS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR, 1941–1945. By G.A. LensenLAND TENURE IN PRE‐REVOLUTIONARY CHINA Kiangsu Province in the 1920s and 1930s. By Robert AshA CRITICAL GUIDE TO THE KWANGTUNG PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES DEPOSITED AT THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF LONDON. By David PongSOCIETY AND POLITICS IN GERMANY 1500–1750. By G BeneckeIN THE ANGLO‐ARAB LABYRINTH: The McMahon‐Husayn Correspondence and its Interpretations 1914–1939. By Elie KedourieTHE ARABS IN ISRAEL. By Sabri JiryisTHE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT, FROM COMINTERN TO COMINFORM. By F. ClaudinWOMEN AS CITIZENS A Comparative Review. By Josephine F. MilburnWHITE ON THE MEDIA. By Brian WhiteMATHEMATICAL APPROACHES TO POLITICS. Edited by H.R. Alker, Jr., K.W. Deutsch and A.H. StoetzelSOCIALIST OWNERSHIP AND POLITICAL SYSTEMS. By Wlodzimierz Brus, translated by R.A. ClarkePUBLIC, TRADE UNION AND COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISE IN GERMANY: The Commonweal Idea. By Walter Hesselbach, translated from the German by Karl KuhneSOVIET FOREIGN POLICY, 1962–1973 The Paradox of Super Power. By Robin EdmondsA HANDBOOK TO ELECTIONS IN UTTAR PRADESH 1920–1951. By P.D. Reeves, B.D. Graham and J.M. GoodmanUNTO GOD AND CAESAR Religious issues in the Emerging Commonwealth 1891–1906. By Richard ElyLEADERSHIP IN FIJI. By Rusiate NayacakalouLOCAL POLITICS AND THE RISE OF PARTY: The London Municipal Society and the Conservative Intervention in Local Elections 1894–1963. By Ken YoungSOLDIERS AND POLITICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: Civil‐Military Relations in Comparative Perspective. By J. Stephen HoadleyA BLANKET A YEAR. Bv Leonard Broom and F. Lancaster JonesABORKINAL HEALTH. By Peter M. MoodieKASHMIR IN TRANSITION 1885–1893. By Dilip Kumar GhoseA RESEARCH GUIDE TO AUSTRALIAN POLITICS AND COGNATE SUBJECTS (ARGAP). By Henry Mayer with Margaret Bettison and Judy KeeneMINDFUL MILITANTS The Amalgamated Engineering Union in Australia, 1920–1972. By T. SheridanTHE FUTURE OF AUSTRALIAN FEDERALISM. By Gordon Greenwood. Second editionMELBOURNE STUDIES IN EDUCATION 1976. Edited by Stephen Murray‐SmithROYAL COMMISSIONS AND DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEES IN BRITAIN A Case‐study in Institutional Adaptiveness and Public Participation in Government. By T.J. CartwrightLEGISLATIVE STAFFING: A Comparative Perspective. Edited by James J. Heaphey and Alan P. BalutisTHE SILENT DICTATORSHIP The Politics of the German High Command under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, 1916–1918. By Martin KitchenTRIAL OF FAITH Religion and Politics in Tocqueville's Thought. By Doris S. GoldsteinVOTING FOR THE QUEENSLAND LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 1890–1964. By Colin A. Hughes and B.D. GrahamVOTING FOR THE VICTORIAN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 1890–1964 (1975).VOTING FOR THE NEW SOUTH WALES LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 1890–1964 (1975).VOTING FOR THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN, WESTERN AUSTRALIAN AND TASMANIAN LOWER HOUSES 1890–1964 (1976).OUR PARTNERSHIP. By Beatrice Webb. Edited by Barbara Drake and Margaret I. Cole with an introduction by George FeaverA CONSTITUTION FOR THE SOCIALIST COMMONWEALTH OF GREAT BRITAIN. By Sidney and Beatrice Webb. With an introduction by Samuel H. BeerMETHODS OF SOCIAL STUDY. By Sidney and Beatrice Webb. With an introduction by T.H. MarshallTHE CORRESPONDENCE OF G.E. MORRISON, vol. I, 1895–1912. Edited by Lo Hui‐min

Described are diff's in the US & GB approach to election studies before describing French electoral sociol. While US studies are influenced by soc psychol'ts & in GB by pol'al sci'ts, the French have been most influenced by geographers, & the terms `electoral geography' & `electoral sociol' are used synonymously. Andre Siegfried is the earliest writer in the field & posited direct & simple explanations such as division of property, pop groupings, occup, submission to the priest, & racial character, & simple causation. The main portion of the work in electoral sociology (ES) has been done since WWII. There are 2 monographs in the field: (1) by Francois Goguel INITIATION AUX RECHERCHES DE GEOGRAPIRE ELECTORALE gives a synoptic account of the theory & practice. 6 main factors are to be considered in a sci'fic study of the elections: SC's; econ systems; religion; spatial configuration of the pop; influence of groups such as masons, unions, & parties; & auto-determination of the electoral evolution (the elections determine the meaning of the elections). (2) SOCIOLOGIE ELECTORALE, in which Goguel has written in the first portion he doubts whether generalization is possible. The rest of the book by George Dupeux is a guidebook for res under 4 headings: res in PO-to him, election returns, professions of faith by the deputies, dep'tal documents, & press reports; religious geography; soc structure, including pop, movement, age, sex, occup, & some econ data; & local history. E. Labrousse's work, LA REVUE SOCIALISTE, is almost the only work on a national level outside of Goguel's. He also believes that the permanence of the tendencies still holds and changes are due to changes in econ structure. Since industrial property is the primary effect on pol'al behavior, the progress of Socialism is assured. Goguel's geography of elections from 1870-1951 considers the Right & the Extreme-Left to the exclusion of the intermediate Left. One of his conclusions is that the ExtremeLeft is made up of both Ur WC & Ru peasant. This ExtremeLeft stems from the anti-clerical 'Extreme-Left'. Another conclusion is that in modern industrialized France, the CenterRight & Center-Left finds little favor in comparison to France as a whole, but the 2 extremes have their greatest strength there. He also concludes that the parties of the Center have a majority in France which can only be maintained if it considers the needs & problems of industrialized France. The methods & techniques of ES may be classified as: those that deal with map construction, &, those that reject maps for some other methods of presentation. Goguel considers questions of map construction: what shadings & hatchings to use, whether to map delegates or votes, etc. Claude Leleu advocates the use of indices in analysis for cartographic representation using fewer maps. Pierre George studied soc & econ conditions in a commuter town near Paris using road maps & semi-circles. His conclusions include a relationship of occup's to voting for pol'al parties. Guttman scales have been used by Sauerwein & de Vulpian. Roger de Smet has used is in a study of Belgian workers, & concluded that the Socialist & Communist Parties in each region of Belgium group almost exclusively workers & employees. Charles Moraze criticized ES primarily on the basis that studies have sacrificed accuracy for simplicity, & sees the need for better tools in soc sci. Arambourou criticizes similarly & wishes to study small regions intensively in order to identify components. Neither of these authors discuss interviewing as a method. Goguel called for studies of abstentionism using a temporary schema which divides abstentionism into 2 causes: where nonvoting is evidence of perplexity or deliberate att, &, where nonvoting is due to such factors as illness, not knowing of the campaign, living too far from the polls, etc. Jean Pataut distinguishes 3 sorts of abstentions: (a) necessary as a result of illness, change of address, etc: estimated at about 10%; (b) as a result of communication, pop characteristics, tradition, & other local characteristics. This is influenced by choice & will vary from place to place; & (c) pol'al factors may bring a rash of nonvoting. Roger Girod's study (N=50, based on interviews) of abstention in Switzerland postulates that both personal & collective factors are operating. Since abstaining is relatively stable in various Cantons, he concludes that abstention is primarily a function of the group. There are 3 studies of the feminine vote using Leleu's indices. Comparisons show that women abstain more than men & vote for most parties less than men with the exception of the MRP & some right-wing Cath groups. The greatest part of the women vote like the men of their class. It is concluded that work in French ES has been in spite of the methods employed,& the better short studies have used r techniques & detailed interviews. It is believed that the limitations are in the method. Working with gross data, the experimenter is unable to perform simultaneous breakdowns because he does not know how these variables actually _E among individuals. The facts of the French party system do not make his task easier. If French ES could add the soc psychol'al approach used in the US & GB to their studies of environmental forces, they could give a better picture of elections. In return, French studies have substance & methods which we in the. US could use. J. D. Twight.

Befindet sich die Welt in einem neuen kalten Krieg? Wenn ja, wer wird ihn gewinnen? Und wo bleibt Europa im Ringen der Giganten? Wenig ist sicher in der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Peking und Washington. Nur eines steht fest: dieser Wettbewerb wird das kommende Jahrzehnt bestimmen. Zeit mit ein paar Mythen aufzuräumen. (IP)