DUVERGER RECONSIDERED

'When someone is honestly 55% right, that's very good, and there's no use wrangling.
And if someone is 60% right, it's wonderful and let him thank God. But what is to be
said about 75% right? Wise people say this is suspicious. Well, and what about 100%
right? Whoever says he's 100% right is a fanatic, a thug, and the worst kind of rascal!'
(So speaks 'An Old Jew from Galicia', in Milosz's The Captive Mind.)     

THE CORRUPT STATE: THE CASE OF ROME RECONSIDERED

This mighty state remarkable for the smallness of its origin, as well as for the greatness to which it attained, has by the splendour of its national exertions … or by its internal revolution and reverses of fortune ever been a principal object of interest to all the more enlightened nations of the western world…. To know it well is to know mankind. There is merit in attempting to promote the study of this subject even if the effect should not correspond with the design.     

FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON THE REFERENDUM: THE EVIDENCE OF THE WELSH VOTE ON DEVOLUTION

Abstract: Developments during the 1970s, suggest that the referendum might become a more permanent feature of British politics. The Welsh referendum provides additional evidence as to its operational characteristics, which indicates: that organized interests can play a significant, if not crucial, role; that the polarization of issues on a'Yes-No'axis promotes confusion; that external events and, in particular, the government's standing, intrude on the central issue; and that it fails to resolve problems, sometimes even in the short run. Despite this the referendum is likely to be used as and when party political expedients require.