THE COMPARATIVE POLITICS OF AGENDA SETTING: THE EMERGENCE OF CONSUMER PROTECTION AS A PUBLIC POLICY ISSUE IN BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

This article compares the emergence of consumer protection as an issue on the public policy agendas of Britain and the United States in the 1960s. Similar forces caused the emergence of consumer protection in both cases. Governmental responses to consumer protection issues also have been similar, but distinctive features of each country's political system are evident as well. The analysis draws upon existing consumer protection literature for each country as well as the author's interviews with a number of Britons involved in this policy area. The principal conclusion is that consumer protection gained each country's policy agenda as a discretionary item. Events of the past few years demonstrate that it is not yet a durable agenda item in either case.     

POLITICS, TOTALITARIANISM AND FREEDOM: THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF HANNAH ARENDT

FEW contemporary political thinkers have attempted as much as Hannah Arendt has in the course of her effort to formulate a philosophy capable of comprehending every important aspect of the human condition. Her endeavours have not indeed passed unnoticed; on the contrary, each of her major works has been extensively reviewed and the originality of her thought readily acknowledged. And yet, surprisingly, little attention has been paid to her work considered as a whole;' the complex of ideas which gives her essays their unity as a body of writing on political philosophy has been neglected. In the present paper an attempt will be made to rectify this state of affairs by directing attention away from the trees to the wood.     

THE POLITICS OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE USSR

Book reviewed in this article:
Nathan Leites, The Soviet Style in Management (New York: Crane Russak, 1985).
Bruce Parrott, Politics and Technology in the Soviet Union (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1985).
Bruce Parrott, Trade, Technology and Soviet-American Relations (Bloom-ington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1985).     

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF LIFE-SAFETY: THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES AND "HAZARDOUS-STRUCTURE ABATEMENT," 1973–1981

The life-safety threat posed by earthquake-vulnerable buildings is widely recognized. This paper outlines the long battle fought in the City of Los Angeles to enact an ordinance intended to abate the hazard. The author also offers a series of both necessary and sufficient factors explaining Los Angelesl ultimate success.