TWO BOOKS ON FEDERALISM1

COMMUNISM AS A WAY OF LIFE
MAX BELOFF
Nuffield College, Oxford
LOCKE'S ATLANTIS ernesto de marchi
St. Antony's College, Oxford     

THE REGIONALISM ALTERNATIVE IN RURAL AREAS1

This study suggests that rural reigonal councils have greater support among public officials for continuing current program activities and services than their urban counterparts. It also suggests, however, that rural regionalism may have a better chance of survival in states where regional councils have a long history of service to local governments, especially in light of present federal cutbacks. Study results contrast Georgia and Michigan regional councils.     

Richard Rorty and the Problem of the Person1

In Richard Rorty's persuasive alternative to contemporary liberal theory he maintains that a contingent, rather than a universalist, liberalism can better engender human solidarity and that the ironic stance can better safeguard liberal freedom than any metaphysical buttress. In an internal critique I argue that irony is an aesthetic, rather than, as solidarity, a moral ideal. Moreover, Rorty's notion of agency is too voluntaristic to supply the necessary communitarian sentiments for solidarity to be achieved. Hence the twin ideals of irony and solidarity cannot both be situated in his decentered notion of selfhood.     

Rational Choice and Community Power Structures1

The community power debate concluded with each side believing they had won. Political theorists have generalized power, making empirical investigation very difficult; urban scholars have turned their attention to more manageable empirical problems. Rational choice advances the debate, exposing the errors of all sides and facilitating a new approach which transcends structural versus individualist methods. By separating various aspects of power in urban contexts, complementary techniques such as network analysis in a bargaining framework, semi-structured interviewing and the use of text databases permits a comprehensive investigation of agenda-setting and the mobilization of bias. The paper demonstrates the utility of this approach by comparing it to 'regime theory', the latest paradigm of urban research.     

THE CHANGING NATURE OF RURAL AMERICA1

Rural regions are changing, both in terms of economic dispersal and population patterns. Rural growth is attributed to technological innovation, improving capacity to deal with impending problems as well as improving quality of life, and intercommunity linkage. For some communities, this means the prospects of indigenous economic development.