Technology transfer to the hardwood industry: Testing new strategies

The National Agricultural Library and the Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture, are collaborating on a technology-transfer strategy with the hardwood industry. The strategy is based on the premises that 1) industry associations can serve as vehicles for identifying industry-wide needs, 2) non-traditional research bases are fertile sources of alternative technologies, 3) technology agents can uncover existing technologies and evaluate the feasibility of commercializing them, and 4) state-of-the-art reports and promotion of new cost-saving technologies provide industry with new products and new processes. He has been a program director for Public Technology, Inc. and the executive director of the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer. Dr. Maher is the current president of the Technology Transfer Society's Washington, DC, Chapter.     

The lay component in Scottish juvenile justice

A recently completed study of the Scottish juvenile justice system, employing a variety of methodological approaches, is used as a source of information on the behavior and attitudes of the lay volunteers who make up children's panels and are responsible for decisions concerning young people who are alleged to have committed an offense or are believed to be in need of care and protection. The reported data relate to the beliefs of panel members as to the causes of delinquency and the objectives of intervention and alternative disposals; the topics they raise for discussion in children's hearings and the factors which influence the decisions they make; and the manner in which they are perceived by the children and parents who have appeared before them.     

The organization of influence on the EC's common agricultural policy: A network approach

Abstract The common agricultural policy of the EC with its market regulations is decided at EC level by a multilevel system of government, in which the Commission and the parliamentary parties of the European Parliament play the supranational role and the national ministries of agriculture act as parts of the intergovernmental system of the Council of Ministers. National interest groups have thereby three major access routes to the EC system, first through their national governments, or second indirectly, transmitted by their European peak organizations, or third directly to the supranational EC actors. The network approach is applied to study empirically the densities of access through these various routes. The links between actors in the agricultural policy domain are conceptualized as links for the exchange of resources, the most important resource of a policy domain being the final control of policy decisions. The political actors of the governance system originally hold full control of this valuable resource which they exchange for influence resources possessed by the interest groups, as public support or expert knowledge. Empirically, answers to the network questions depend on the type of resource and the viewpoint of the interviewed actors. An index is developed which indicates the resource flows between actors and the distribution of equilibrium control of policy decisions. It is shown that the national ministers of agriculture depend very much on the support and expertise of their national farmers' lobby, whereas the Commission relies more on contacts within the political sector itself. Multilevel systems need a lot of political coordination, so that the political actors within such systems, especially at the supranational level, seem to deal first of all with each other and not so much with the demand side of politics, compared to the national ministers of agriculture.     

Book reviews

William G. Rosenberg, Liberals in the Russian Revolution. The Constitutional Democratic Party, 1917–1921. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1974. xiv+534 pp. $25.00 or $9.75 (paperback).

Roger Pethybridge, The Social Prelude to Stalinism. London: Macmillan, 1974. 343 pp. £7.00.

Vladimir Seduro, Dostoevski's Image in Russia Today. Belmont, Mass.: Nordland Publishing Company, 1975. 508 pp. $18.50.

P. H. Vigor, The Soviet View of War, Peace and Neutrality. London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975. vii+256 pp. £6.50.

Franklyn D. Holzman, Financial Checks on Soviet Defense Expenditures. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1975. xv+104 pp. $11.50.

Hans‐E. Gramatzki, Räumliche Aspekte der Sowjetischen Wirtschaftsplanung. Berlin: Berichte des Osteuropa‐Instituts an der Freien Universität Berlin, 1974. 500 pp. DM 18.50.

Andrew F. Burghardt (ed.), Development Regions in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Canada. New York: Praeger, and London: Martin Robertson, 1975. xiii+192 pp. £8.25.

Alvin Z. Rubinstein (ed.), Soviet and Chinese Influence in the Third World. Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government. New York: Praeger, and London: Martin Robertson, 1975. ix+232 pp. £8.55.

Alfred Zauberman, The Mathematical Revolution in Soviet Economics. London: OUP, 1975. xii+62 pp. £2.75.

M. W. Balz, Invention and Innovation under Soviet Law: A Comparative Analysis. Toronto and London: Lexington Books, D. C. Heath, 1975. ix+187pp. £7.50.

Susan Jacoby, Inside Soviet Schools. New York: Schocken Books, 1974. 248 pp. $3.95.

Alexander Matejko, Social Change and Stratification in Eastern Europe. An Interpretive Analysis of Poland and Her Neighbors. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York: Praeger, 1974, and London: Pall Mall Press, 1975. xxiii+272 pp. £8.00.

Jaroslaw Piekalkiewicz, Communist Local Government. A Study of Poland. Athens, Ohio: Ohio UP, 1975. xiv+282 pp. $10.00.

Hans Hermann Höhmann, Michael C. Kaser, Karl C. Thalheim (eds.), The New Economic Systems of Eastern Europe. London: C. Hurst, and Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975. xxi+585 pp. £9.50.

Betty A. Laird and Roy D. Laird, To Live Long Enough: the Memoirs of Naum Jasny, Scientific Analyst. Lawrence: The University Press of Kansas, 1976. vii+190 pp. $11.00.

Oleh Semenovych Pidhainy and Oleksandra Ivanivna Pidhainy, The Ukrainian Republic in the Great East‐European Revolution: A Bibliography. Part II. Vol. 6. Toronto and New York: New Review Books, 1975. xv+387 pp. $34.50.