The Voting Rights Act and Louisiana: Twenty Years of Enforcement

This article examines the interaction of structural change (lawsaffecting voting rights) and cultural continuities (differencesbetween the Protestant and black Catholic political cultures)on the level and quality of black political participation inLouisiana. Blacks who at mid-century resided in the French-Catholicparishes were more likely to register and vote than blacks wholived outside these parishes. The advent of the Voting RightsAct has radically changed this pattern. Northern parishes havingthe highest proportion of black population, the highest landtenancy rates, and a tradition of a plantation economy are nowamong the parishes exhibiting the highest rates of black voterregistration.     

B. Reviews: general

i. ISLAM IN THE WORLD. By Malise Ruthven. London, Penguin Books, 1984. pp.400. £3.95.

ii. ISLAM IN FOREIGN POLICY. Edited by Adeed Dawisha, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press in Association with Chatham House, 1983. pp.181 and index. £17.50.

iii. BAHA'U'LLAH: THE KING OF GLORY. By Hasan Balyuzi. Oxford, George Ronald, 1980. pp.539 with photographs and 1 colour plate. £9.00.

iv. THE GREAT ANATOLIAN REBELLION, 1000/1591–1611. By William J. Griswold. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen Vol.83). Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1983. pp.xxiv, 333, 12 maps.

v. CONSTRUCTION WORK IN OTTOMAN CAIRO. By Nelly Hanna. Supplement aux Annales Islamologiques, Cahier No.4). Cairo, Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1985.

vi. REGIONALE REFORMEN IN OSMANISCHEN REICH AM VORABEND DER TANZIMAT. By Michael Ursinus. (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, Bd.73), Berlin, Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1982. pp.vii, 327.

vii. NORTH AFRICA, 1800–1900: A SURVEY FROM THE NILE VALLEY TO THE ATLANTIC. By Magali Morsy, London & New York, Longman, 1984. pp.356 with maps, tables and figures.

viii. LETTERS FROM EGYPT. By Lucie Duff Gordon. London, Virago, 1983. pp.xxiv, 383. £4.95.

ix. BRIDE OF THE RED SEA. A 10th/16th CENTURY ACCOUNT OF JEDDAH. (AL SILAH WA‐'L ‘UDDAH FI TARIKH BANDAR JUDDAH). Arabic text edited, translated and annotated by G.Rex Smith and ‘Umar Al‐Zayla'I. (Occasional Papers Series, No.22). Durham, University of Durham. Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, 1984. pp.vi., 153, 4 plates.

x. ARAB HISTORIANS OF THE CRUSADES: Selected and translated from the Arabic sources by Francesco Gabrieli; translated from the Italian by E.J.Costello. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, reprinted 1984. pp.xxxvi, 362. £6.95.

xi. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND THE MIDDLE EAST: OLD RULES, DANGEROUS GAME. By L.Carl Brown. London, I.B.Tauris, 1984, pp.xii, 363. Casebound £29.50., Paper £9.50.

xii. RELIGION AND POLITICS IN IRAN. Edited by Nikki R. Keddie. New Haven & London, Yale University Press, 1983. pp.x, 258. 1 map. £20.00.

xiii. THE STATE AND REVOLUTION IN IRAN, 1962–1982. By Hossein Bashiriyeh. London, Croom Helm, 1984. pp.202. £16.95.

xiv. THE ARABIAN PENINSULA: ZONE OF FERMENT. Edited by Robert W. Stookey. (Hoover International Studies Series). Stanford, Stanford University, 1984. pp.xxxiii, 151, 4 maps. Casebound £20.80, Paper £9.40.

xv. THE PLO: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION. By Jillian Becker. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984. pp.x, 303, maps.

xvi. SUDAN AT THE CROSSROADS. By Charles Gurdon. London, Menas Press, 1984. pp.vii, 128, 1 map. £6.25.

xvii. THE STRUGGLE FOR SOUTH YEMEN. By Joseph Kostiner. London, Croom Helm, 1984. pp.194, map. £14.95.     

A Comparative Spatial Analysis of European Party Systems*

This article examines mass perceptions of political parties in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, West Germany, the Netherlands and France. For each country we construct a map in which the parties, voters, and demographic groups are located to provide a visual and spatial overview of the structure of electoral competition. Two dimensions are adequate for displaying the main ideological cleavages in each of the countries. In each case there is a strong left-right dimension combined with a more culturally defined and usually weaker second competitive dimension. In general, we find that no parties occupy the center areas of the space, which are usually dense with voters. This leads us to question the adequacy of the traditional spatial model of elections for describing competition in multiparty systems.     

"Out With The Old, In With The New": The New Federalism, Intergovernmental Coordination, and Executive Order 12372

An important New Federalism initiative of the Reagan administrationhas been the effort to ease the burdens of intergovernmentalregulation, and in particular to alter the system of intergovernmentalcoordination. The issuance in 1982 of Executive Order 12372,to replace OMB Circular A-95, triggered spirited controversyand intensive negotiations among major institutional actorsin intergovernmental coordination. The year 1983 ended withseveral key issues largely settled, but with other questions(e.g., the continuing role of OMB, and a number of proceduralconcerns) still unresolved.