Dissent from the right

Among many writings, he is author of Talmudic Thinking: Language, Logic, and Law;and The Talmud: Close Encounters.     

Male masturbation and female orgasm

His latest book is Reproduction and Succession: Studies in Anthropology, Law, and Society,published by Transaction. A collection of essays, The Challenge of Anthropology: Old Encounters and New Excursions,is forthcoming from the same publisher.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: James Deeney . The Irish Worker: A Demographic Study of the Labour Force in Ireland. Robert R. Wilson . International Law and Contemporary Commonwealth Issues. R. F. Salisbury . Vunamami: Economic Transformation in a Traditional Society.     

Time warp in American politics

Among her books are Conflict in Africa: Concepts and Realities; The Future of Law in a Multicultural World;and Strategic Intelligence and Statecraft;and Politics and Culture in International History: From the Acient Near East to the Opening of the Modern Age,a new edition of which has been published by Transaction.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Boundaries of Law, Politics and Religion by Lewis V. Baldwin. Against Us, But For Us: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the State by Michael G. Long. Macon.     

Water law and the American West(s)

Donald J. Pisani: To Reclaim a Divided West: Water, Law, and Public Policy, 1848–1902. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.

John Hart: Storm Over Mono: The Mono Lake Battle and the California Water Future. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Arthur L. Littleworth and Eric L. Garner: California Water. Point Arena, CA: Solano Press Books, 1995.     

Thinking about community: Ten theses

His books include TVA and the Grass Roots, The Organizational Weapon, Leadership in Administration, Law, Society, and Industrial Justice,and, most recently, The Moral Commonwealth: Social Theory and the Promise of Community.     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed: The New Wars. By Herfried Münkler. (Cambridge: Polity, 2005). Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. By Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. (New York: Penguin Press, 2004). Sovereignty and its Discontents: On the Primacy of Conflict and the Structure of the Political. By William Rasch. (London: Birkbeck Law Press, 2004). The State of the Political: Conceptions of Politics and the State in the Thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Franz Neumann. By Duncan Kelly. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.)     

Israel and its enemies

He has written widely on international relations and international law. His work Security Or Armageddon: Israel’s Nuclear Strategyremains the authoritative treatment of the subject. His newest book is Force, Order and Justice: International Law in an Age of Atrocity.     

Withdrawing (from) waste,and the end of law: reflections on DeLillo’s prophecies in Mao II (1991) and Underworld (1997)

ABSTRACT

An often heard phrase these days is “There is something about this chaotic 21st century of ours ...”. This “something”, it is argued here, lies at the heart of a new form of life which has become predominant in recent decades in globalizing culture: the life of aspiring, radicalizing sovereigns. This “something”, then, could the called the end of Law. In an age of aspiring and radicalizing sovereigns the Law, indeed law in all its forms and shapes, has become not just an irrelevance, but a nuisance and embarrassment as well. One of the manifestations of this irreverent sovereign attitude is the growing inability to accept waste, that is, an inability to live with all that generates waste (i.e. Law), and an inability to live with all that is waste. Waste, i.e. the accumulation of spent potential, is not what the aspiring, radicalizing sovereign wants. The sovereign's desires are all about conserving all potential. Although this new form of life has become manifest only very recently, it had been predicted by the novelist Don DeLillo in his novels Mao II and Underworld. The themes and images in both these novels are the focus of this contribution.     

Anticommunautarisme and the government of religious difference

Abstract

The 1901 Law on Associations and the 1905 Law on the Separation of Churches and the State constitute enduring landmarks in the government of religion in France. With these statutes, a religiously neutralized public space came into being, for the purpose of governing a religiously (and ideologically) divided population. A consideration of the legislative history throws light on the related concepts of laïcité and anticommunautarisme, without caricaturing the ‘secularist’ institutions of a French state where – as in other European liberal regimes – religious associations now play a definite but limited role in areas of governmental concern.     

BOOK NOTES

Book reviewed in this article: Arthur Seldon . The Greave Pensions “Swindle”. N.S.W. Parliamentary Library. Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances in Australia. G. Blainey . The Rush that Never Ended. R. I. Domo . National Income and Social Accounts: An Australian Study. W. M. Corden . Australian Economic Policy Discussion: A Survey. F. G. Dawdson . The Industrialization of Australia. J. H. Bristow and A. A. Tait (Eds.). Economic Policy in Ireland. New South Wales Parliamentary Library. Statutory Bodies in New South Wales: A Checklist. Sir John Crawford . The Development of Trade Policy. B. D. Haig and S. S. Mc Burney . The Interpretation of National Income Estimates. Michael Williams (Ed.). South Australia from the Air. Bertil Wennergren . Protection of the Citizen in Administrative Procedures. David E. Allan (Ed.). Asian Contract Law, A Survey of Current Problems. T. B. Millar . Australia's Defense.     

Why conservative or liberal?

He is author most recently of Law in a Democratic Society;and Science, Language, and the Human Condition.     

Hong Kong between East and West

The Hong Kong Basic Law: Blueprint for ‘Stability and Prosperity’ under Chinese Sovereignty, edited by Ming K. Chan and David J. Clark. (Hong Kong Becoming China Series) M. E. Sharpe, New York, 1991. xv + 311 pp. $45. ISBN 0–87332–835–3.

The China‐Hong Kong Connection: The Key to China's Open‐Door Policy, by Yun‐Wing Sung. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991. xiv + 183 pp. £27.50. ISBN 0–521–38245–9.

The Making of Hong Kong Society: Three Studies of Class Formation in Early Hong Kong, by W. K. Chan. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991. viii + 251 pp. £32.50. ISBN 0–19–827320–7.     

The puzzling case of Jimmy “the Greek”

His previous contribution to Society,“Sexual Harassment and the Law,” appeared in the May/June 1991 issue. The author wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the Sarah Scaife Foundation and the John M. Olin Foundation.     

Searching for electoral irregularities in an established democracy: Applying Benford’s Law tests to Bundestag elections in Unified Germany

This article investigates electoral irregularities in the 1990 to 2005 Bundestag elections of unified Germany. Drawing on the Second Digit Benford Law (2BL) by Mebane (2006), the analysis consists of comparing the observed frequencies of numerals of candidate votes and party votes at the precinct level against the expected frequencies according to Benford’s Law. Four central findings stand out. First, there is no evidence for systematic fraud or mismanagement with regard to candidate votes from districts where fraud would be most instrumental. Second, at the state level (Bundesland), there are 51 violations in 190 tests of the party list votes. Third, East German states are not more prone to violations than Western ones. This finding refutes the notion that the East’s more recent transition to democracy poses problems in electoral management. Fourth, a strong variation in patterns of violation across Bundesländer exists: states with dominant party control are more likely to display irregularities. The article concludes by hypothesizing and exploring the notion that partisan composition of nominees involved in the counting may produce a higher likelihood of violation and be a cause of Länder variation. This may especially be the case when a party dominates in a Bundesland or opponents to the former socialist regime party are involved in the counting.     

Global democracy in a society of peoples

This paper explores the political structures suitable for the realization of John Rawls’ The Law of Peoples (1999). In particular, it explores whether Rawls’ principles and fundamental foundations recommend establishing global institutions and, if so, whether, and in what sense, these institutions should be democratic. It is often suggested, either implicitly or explicitly, that The Law of Peoples would operate through the bilateral and multilateral interactions of, ideally conceived, nation-states. This paper argues, on the contrary, that it would advise a series of democratic global institutions. The case is developed with respect to the idea of a global institution with the remit of regulating international trade and applied, in the contemporary context, to the World Trade Organization (WTO).     

An analysis of contributions and contributors to Public Choice and the Journal of Law and Economics; 1973–1987

Several conclusions may be drawn from the information we have presented here. First and without doubt, the University of Chicago is by far the most dominant force overall, and is particularly so with respect to the production of pages and papers published in the Journal of Law and Economics. The George Mason-Virginia Tech influence is strong with respect to Public Choice, but is not, in our opinion, dominant.One does not necessarily need to be located at a large, research-oriented school in order to publish in either journal, but these schools are the source of most contributions. This is particularly true of the JLE but significantly less so for PC. The source of contributions is very broad, but top 50 institutions account for the lion's share. Contributions by persons employed at foreign institutions are important, particularly for PC.     

The piper’s tune

Caroline Poplin is a graduate of Yale Law School and practiced law for more than a decade. She then attended the University of Rochester Medical School and is now a practicing internist in Virginia. This is her first article in SOCIETY.     

The political process of decentralization in Peru, 1985–1990

This paper, using Peru as a case study, argues that the most potent factor in the implementation of decentralization in developing countries is ‘political’ in nature and operation. The legislative process of decentralization under President Alan García's regime went through three major steps, controlled by his party, APRA (Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana,): (1) The 1986 Bill of the Basic Law of Regionalization; (2) The 1987 Basic Law of Regionalization; and (3) The 1988 Modified Law of Regionalization. Why did Alan García push for decentralization, unlike his predecessors? The 1985 elections produced García, a populist demagogue, and a loose political party system dominated by APRA. However, the legislation of decentralization was possible paradoxically because García, who was desperately looking for a political issue to distract people's minds from his misgovernment, needed to control APRA for a regional power base after 1990. Thus, the whole decentralization process was highly politicized, and García's strategy was ‘successful’ in that regional governments came to be controlled by APRA after the 1989 and 1990 regional elections. The Peruvian case shows how far decentralization can be used for personalistic or partisan interests in a fragile democracy.