Book review

Anthony Arnold, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Perspective. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1981. 126 pp. $9.95.

Michael Radu (ed.), Eastern Europe and the Third World. Eastbourne: Holt‐Saunders Ltd., 1981. 358 pp. £21.75.

E. J. Feuchtwanger and Peter Nailor (eds.), The Soviet Union and The Third World. London: Macmillan Press, 1981. 229 pp. £20.00

Wladyslaw Bienkowski, Theory and reality: the development of social systems. London & New York: Allison & Busby, 1981. 303 pp. £5.95.

Allen S. Whiting, Siberian Development and East Asia: Threat or Promise? Stanford: University Press, 1981. xv + 276 pp. $22.50.

Christopher D. Jones, Soviet Influence in Eastern Europe: Political Autonomy and the Warsaw Pact. Praeger, 1981. 322 pp. $29.95 cloth, $10.95 paperback.

Stephen Kaplan, Diplomacy of Power. Washington: Brookings Institution, 1981. 733 pp. $9.50 paper, $19.95 cloth.

Derek Leebaert (ed.), Soviet Military Thinking. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981. xii + 300 pp. £14.50 hardback, £6.95 paperback.

J. Brine, M. Perry and Andrew Sutton (eds.), Home, School and Leisure in the Soviet Union. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1980. xiv + 279 pp. £15.00.

Manfred Melzer, Anlagevermögen, Produktion und Beschäftigung der Industrie im Gebiet der DDR von 1936 bis 1978, sowie Schätzung des künftigen Ange‐botspotentials. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1980. 250 pp.

Ilmari Susiluoto, The origins and development of systems thinking in the Soviet Union. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1982. 210 pp.

Michael Waller, Democratic Centralism, an Historical Commentary. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1981. 155 pp. £14.50.     

Relating systems concepts and public planning

Scientism so pervades our society that its methodological arm, the research approach, is assumed to be de rigeur for establishing policies and solving problems. Using the research approach, modern disciplinary developments created many techniques, such as operations research/management science/systems analysis (OR/MS/SA), ostensibly for finding solutions to pressing organizational and societal problems.This paper's emphasis on scientism and the research approach is deliberate - these concepts are the Weltanschauung of OR/MS/SA, the major systems concepts available. Their analysis, modeling of what exists, quantification, and reductionism are assumed to be the beauty of their logic and their only rationality. Public planning also assumes that analysis, modeling, quantification, and reductionism are the fundamental parts of problem solving and policy setting. This paper shows how this research approach and the unstated assumption that it must be used when establishing policies or solving problems now loom as the problems, and may be the biggest stumbling blocks to finding the good solutions society needs.Adapted from the author's forthcoming book, The Planning and Design Professions: An Operational Theory, New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1981.     

The Diffusion of Executive Power in American State Constitutions: Tenure and Tenure Limitations

The comparative study of the development of state constitutionalprovisions concerning executive power, within the frameworkof diffusion theory, has value for a general understanding ofexecutive authority in contemporary America. American chiefexecutive offices were designed with a complex package of powersand limits, all viewed by their creators as mutually contingentand in delicate balance. Since the creation of each executiveoffice, constitutional development has evidenced a "decouplingeffect," that is, in different eras, discrete powers and limits,considered individually, were altered in response to unfoldingevents and changing ideological premises, generally with theeffect of enhancing executive power. This pattern is evidentin the development of the current norm in constitutional provisionsregarding tenure and tenure limitation, the four-year term andthe two-term limit. In this development, there has been evidenceof mutual influence between the states and the national governmentwith some evidence, too, of regional patterns of resistanceto change (in New England). Somewhat surprisingly for thosewhose study of executive power is limited to the Presidency,when a comparative approach is employed, the post-Civil Warperiod emerges as a crucial time of executive strengtheningin America.     

How Strong Is Public Support for the Death Penalty in Singapore?

Singapore is well known internationally for its uncompromising stance towards law and order and its use of the death penalty in particular for murder and drug trafficking. Until 2012, it was one of the few countries in the world where the death penalty was mandatory for persons convicted of these two crimes. The law was amended in 2012 to give a judge the choice to impose the death penalty or life imprisonment (with caning) for non-intentional murder and drug trafficking in some situations. What do Singaporeans think of the use of the death penalty in their own country? This article reports on some findings of a survey conducted in 2016 on 1500 Singaporeans to assess their knowledge and support of the death penalty.     

Decoding the DNA of the CPC

<正>The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China convened in Beijing on October 18.It is expected to set a blueprint for the country to march toward modernization and achieve national revitalization in the 21st century.A recent series of reports by Xinhua News Agency elaborate on China's development path and the CPC's governance theories,practices and efforts.The following are edited versions of the last     

从明代学田地租管窥贵州各地生计方式的差异——对《黔记·学校志》中相关史料的解读

《黔记》是明代郭子章私家撰著的贵州通志。该书《学校志》中有关各儒学学田的记录十分翔实,这些史料能从一个侧面反映当时贵州各地生态背景和生计方式的差异。例如,该志所载乌撒卫学田中有部分田产以荍作为缴纳田租的粮食种类,这与乌撒其地湿润多雨、生长季短及当地彝族回族大量种植荞麦密切相关;又如该志所载清平卫与思州府学田的田租中有以手和边为粮食计量单位的实例,这足以表明当地侗族苗族习惯于种植糯稻,而他们栖息地的生态环境确实适宜种植糯稻。总之,只要认真解读史料,就能在很大程度上复原明代贵州的生态面貌。     

列宁民族区域自治思想评析

实行民族区域自治，是列宁提出的解决民族问题的重要方法。列宁在领导俄国无产阶级革命的过程中，把马克思主义关于民族问题的基本原理与俄国的社会实际相结合，初步形成了民族区域自治思想。他主要阐述了实行民族区域自治的必要性、如何确定民族区域自治地区的范围、民族区域自治与民主集中制的关系等思想。     

A Kindergarten at Longxing:Put the World back in Place(Abridged)

Little hands started the motion—and the snow-white object inside a transparent ball turned out to be a small replica of the Swiss Pavilion of the World Expo revolving