‘Wearing the Breeches’? Almack’s,the Female Patroness,and Public Femininity c.1764–1848

Almack’s, a mixed-sex establishment run by a group of female patronesses, was a popular meeting place for the aristocracy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Yet, despite its contemporary appeal, the establishment has received little attention from historians. This article addresses this absence, exploring the varying, and often contentious, social, cultural and political functions and meanings the establishment held. Building on recent historiographical developments, this article demonstrates how certain aristocratic women were able to exercise power and influence at the heart of their class. In doing so, it considers the intersections between gender, urban space and political culture. It argues that the activities of the female patronesses were often highly contested, exposing the narrow, and often blurred, line between legitimate and illegitimate action.     

Financial Discrepancies in Political Party Funding by Indonesian Local Government Authorities

Through different forms of decentralization variables, this study investigates Indonesian local government authorities' 2006 financial accountability reports in terms of local government authorities' contributing funds to political parties. Audit results by the Supreme Audit Body reveal that many articles were violated by these authorities in regard to the distributing, administrating, and reporting of assistance funds from them to political parties. Each rupiah committed by the 221 local government authorities involved in this study violated, on average, 1.8 articles, indicating a low level of compliance.

Critically, the study finds that administrative, fiscal, and political decentralization decreases discrepancies. The less administratively decentralized provincial authorities, where decision making is a level of government farther from the people, are more likely than non-provincial local government authorities to make discrepancies with political party legislation and regulations. Fiscally decentralized local government authorities, who earn a higher fraction of their revenue from local sources, also tend to have fewer discrepanciesFinally, politically decentralized authorities with a higher percentage of elected officials from the decentralized supporting ruling coalition, also have fewer discrepancies.     

The fate of the placid poor

InRegulating the Poor Piven and Cloward touched off controvery among academicians when they argued that the poor benefitted from civil turmoil. Those who believed that violence of any sort was wrong were inclined to believe that violence must also be ineffective. Studies done on the thesis repeatedly concluded that civil turmoil did help to advance the interests of the poor. Pluralists continued to argue that government responded to needs, not demands. For the twenty years following publication ofRegulating the Poor nothing like the urban riots of the sixties occurred in U.S. cities. Piven and Cloward had argued that “a placid poor hardly constitute a political constituency whose interests must be taken seriously”.¹ To what extent has recent history shown that the state will respond to the needs of the poor even in the absence of turmoil?     

Causes of bewilderment: Necessity,sufficiency and facilitating conditions for democratization

Explanations of democratization are often criticized using criteria that cannot feasibly be satisfied. One possible result of this is that all explanations are made to appear woefully inadequate. Another is the misapplication of the criteria to deliver prejudiced judgement on rival accounts. The problems attached to such criteria are outlined. Replacement strategies adopted by different approaches are identified and assessed, stressing the constructive role that values and interests may play in the appraisal of competing explanations.     

Book reviews

Cyril Smith, Marx at the Millennium, (Pluto Press, London 1996). 182pp. ISBN 0–7453–100–1 (pb).

Hans‐Henrik Holm and Georg Sørensen (eds), Whose World Order? Uneven Globalization and the End of the Cold War, (Westview Press, Boulder 1995). x.+246pp. ISBN 0–8133–2187–5 (pb).

David A.Smith and József Böröcz (eds), A New World Order? Global Transformations in the Late Twentieth Century, (Praeger, Westport 1995). xii+253pp. ISBN 0–275–95122–7.

Frank E. Manuel, A Requiem for Karl Marx, (Harvard University Press, 1995). 270pp. ISBN 0–674–76326–2.

Hanna Behrend (ed.), German Unification: the Destruction of an Economy, (Pluto Press, London 1995). 232pp. ISBN 0–7453–1003–6.

David Miller, On Nationality, (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1995). 210pp. ISBN 0–19–828047–5.

Thom Keuhls, Beyond Sovereign Territory: The Space of Ecopolitics, (Borderlines Vol. 4, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1996). 168 pp. ISBN 0–8166–2467–4 (hb), 0–8166–2468–2 (pb).     

The Continued Relevance of Local Parties in Representative Democracies

This article assesses the value of local parties. It asks why political parties value their local sections. It also considers the ways in which local parties can benefit society. Local parties act as a democratic training ground for party members, are a conduit for political communication and provide parties with a range of resources. They also act as problem solving agencies; they ensure that policy is responsive to local needs; they provide an additional channel of communication and accountability; and they link citizens with the state. The article ends with an appeal to party scholars to refocus their attention towards local parties.