Book Reviews

Comparative Civil (Private) Law. G. Eoersi. Budapest. 1979. Akademiai Kiado 651 pp. 850 ft.

Recherches sur l'Histoire des Institutions et du Droit. Ed. late G. Herlea. Association d'Histoire Comparative des Institutions et du Droit de la République Socialiste de Roumanie. Bucharest, vol. II (1978) 195 pp, vol. III (1979) 207 pp.

Manual of Law French J. H. Baker. Amersham; Avebury Publishing Co. 1979,207 pp. £7.50.     

Environmental crime prosecutions in Ireland, 2004–2014

Despite increased interest in environmental crime and green criminology, few studies address the use of criminal penalties in response to environmental crimes. A handful of published examples employ data from the United States or the Flanders court system, and little is known about how other nations punish environmental violations. Addressing this issue, the current study examined the use of criminal environmental penalties in Ireland from 2004 to 2014. Few criminal environmental cases (N = 147) and few environmental offenders (N = 154) were represented in these data over time. Consistent with the expectations of green/environmental crime researchers, mean penalties for environmental violations, which in Ireland only include fines and investigative cost recovery penalties, were rather small. Unlike in the US or Flanders, the majority of offenders were corporate offenders as opposed to individuals. Contextual factors related to Ireland’s economy, history and use of criminal sanctions should be used to interpret these factors, and prevent generalising from these data.     

Controlling Local Environmental Performance: an analysis of three national environmental management programs in the context of regional disparities in China

Whether government has the political will and capacity to control pollution is crucial for environmental outcomes. A vast country such as China, with centralized policymaking but idiosyncratic local implementation of environmental regulations and drastic regional disparities in wealth, raises the question of how does the central government stimulate local environmental commitment to accommodate such diversity? In exploring this issue, this paper compares three national environmental management programs that are used as influencing and bargaining tools between the central and local governments of China: Quantitative Examination of Comprehensive Control of Urban Environment (1989), Model City for Protecting the Environment (1997) and pilot Green Gross Domestic Product (2005). Although the introduction of these schemes represents an important step forward in addressing demanding environmental issues their impact is found to be mixed. However, each scheme also has something important to offer to this particular realm of environmental management and by recognizing and compiling their comparative advantages a number of policy implications for future local commitment towards and capacity for environmental protection can be provided.     

The Politics of European Referendum Outcomes and Turnout: Two Models

This survey briefly examines the EU accession process for the countries included in this collection and considers the distinctive features of this set of referendums, particularly the comparatively high levels of Yes vote and low levels of turnout. It argues that, although they represent a distinctive sub-type of European referendum, they can be used as a basis to draw at least tentative comparative and theoretical conclusions. Consequently, it then posits causal models that both provide an analytical framework for this collection and, more broadly, attempt to explain the results and turnout in these and, potentially, other (European) referendums.     

Transnational Legitimacy in a Globalising World: How the European Union Rescues its States

This article addresses claims regarding the limited legitimacy of international institutions. It argues that the two original appointed supranational institutions of the European Union play a crucial, if systematically underestimated, role not merely in providing legitimacy for the Union itself, but also in shoring up that of its constituent member states. We illustrate that supranationalism enhances national legitimacy in functional, political and administrative terms. It does so by helping member states produce outputs they otherwise could not (particularly by enabling them to deal with transboundary policy problems they would struggle to confront if acting in isolation) and by embedding within national political and administrative systems legally enforceable obligations to respect the interests of actors whose voice is excluded or muffled (de jure or de facto) within purely national political processes. The article contends that the claims to legitimacy made by the EU and its member states are of distinctive character but interdependent and mutually reinforcing.     

The second European elections: 14–17 June 1984

Social Democratic Parties in Western Europe. Edited by William E. Paterson and Alastair H. Thomas. London: Croom Helm, 1977. Pp. 444. £9.95.

Policy Making in the European Communities. Edited by H. Wallace, W. Wallace and C. Webb. London: Wiley, 1977. Pp. xiv+341. £10.50.

La Politique Militaire de la Ve République. By Lothar Ruehl. Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Cahiers de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques No. 193), 1976. Pp. xi+130. Fr. 76.

Fascism. By Martin Kitchen, London: Macmillan, 1976. Pp. xi+106. £2.95.

Sozialpolitik im Dritten Reich: Arbeiterklasse und Volksgemeinschaft. By Timothy W. Mason. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1977. Pp. 374, DM. 19,80.

Writers and Politics in Modern France. (1909–1961). By J. E. Flower. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977. Pp. vii+78. £1.50.

Le discours communiste. By Dominique Labbe. Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1977. Pp. 205. Frs. 80.

Western Europe: The Trials of Partnership. Edited by David Landes. Critical Choices for Americans, Vol. VIII. Lexington, Mass: Lexington Books (D. C. Heath), 1977. Pp. xix+406. £12.50.

The Jekyll and Hyde Years: Politics and Economic Policy since 1964. By Michael Stewart. London: Dent, 1977. Pp. 272. £8.50.

From Summit to Council: Evolution in the EEC. By Annette Morgan. London: Chatham House‐PEP, 1976. Pp. 75. £1.50.

The Politics and Economics of European Monetary Integration. By Loukas Tsoukalis. London: Allen and Unwin, 1977. Pp. 192. £8.50.

National Attitudes and the Financing of Industry. By Yao‐Su Hu. London: Chatham House—PEP, 1975. Pp. v+71. £3.00.

The Deferential Worker: A study of farm workers in East Anglia. By Howard Newby. London: Allen Lane, 1977. Pp. 462; £9.00.

The European Policy of the SPD. By Juliet Lodge, Sage Research Paper, Contemporary European Studies, Vol. 5, 1977 $3.00.

Der Rechtsstatus des Landes Berlin. Eine Untersuchung nach dem Viermachte‐Abkommen vom 3. September 1971. By Ernst R. Zivier, Berlin: Berlin‐Verlag, 3rd. ed., 1977. Pp. 399 (incl. Dokumentation); DM 36.

Die DDR zwischen Ost und West von 1961 bis 1976. By Peter C. Ludz. Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1977. Pp. 367; DM 19,80.     

The constitutional court in Italian politics

The Italian constitutional court was established as an extra‐political guardian of the constitution, but it has assumed an important role in policy‐making which is far removed from its original, intended functions. This article describes the political background to its development and analyses the variety of ways in which the court has to take decisions of considerable political sensitivity with increasing frequency. The court is most in the public eye when it carries out its functions in the referendum procedures, but its involvement is more continuous, more creative and more positive than this might suggest. The article concludes that the court has to take action in areas for which it lacks the proper instruments, and that us relationship with other institutions in the policy‐making process is worthy of more attention than such relationships often receive.     

Oxytocin and the Biological Basis for Interpersonal and Political Trust

Political scientists have documented the many ways in which trust influences attitudes and behaviors that are important for the legitimacy and stability of democratic political systems. They have also explored the social, economic, and political factors that tend to increase levels of trust in others, in political figures, and in government. Neuroeconomic studies have shown that the neuroactive hormone oxytocin, a peptide that plays a key role in social attachment and affiliation in non-human mammals, is associated with trust and reciprocity in humans (e.g., Kosfeld et al., Nature 435:673–676, 2005; Zak et al., Horm Beh 48:522–527, 2005). While oxytocin has been linked to indicators of interpersonal trust, we do not know if it extends to trust in government actors and institutions. In order to explore these relationships, we conducted an experiment in which subjects were randomly assigned to receive a placebo or 40 IU of oxytocin administered intranasally. We show that manipulating oxytocin increases individuals’ interpersonal trust. It also has effects on trust in political figures and in government, though only for certain partisan groups and for those low in levels of interpersonal trust.