Honk Honk!China on the Move

Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to FactoryAuthor: Peter Hessler Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: HarperUS $27.99EXPATRIATES in Beijing may grin in wry recognition at Peter Hessler’s     

Artistic Impression

FOR the average non-Chinese the appreciation of more obviously accessible forms of Chinese art - shanshui landscapes, present no great problem and even calligraphy can be approached purely as abstract art. But a ＂chop？＂ As a modestly-priced souvenir, bearing a lasercarved approximation of one＇s name, perhaps. But as an art form that changes hands at fantastic prices？ That takes some explaining.     

Aviation in Africa

The following address by the adviser on African affairs to B.O.A.C.was given to a joint meeting of the Royal African Society andthe Royal Commonwealth Society on November 2, 1961. Mr. A. E.P. Robinson, High Commissioner for the Federation of Rhodesiaand Nyasaland and former chairman of Central African Airways,took the chair     

Right‐wing populist party supporters: Dissatisfied but not direct democrats

Right‐wing populist parties tend to combine criticism of how liberal democracy functions with calls for greater direct democracy. But do their voters share that support for direct democracy? In this article, survey data is used to examine, first, whether right‐wing populist candidates in Australia, Canada and New Zealand were more supportive of direct democracy than candidates of other parties. Second, the views of right‐wing populist voters about the functioning of democracy and direct democracy are investigated. While right‐wing populist candidates turned out to be far more likely to support direct democracy, right‐wing populist supporters did not mirror the candidates. Although these were among the most dissatisfied with how democracy worked, they did not necessarily favour referendums more than other voters. The findings have implications both for how we conceive of the relationship between populism and direct democracy and the remedies proposed for redressing populist discontent.     

Peeresses,Parliament and prejudice: the admission of women to the House of Lords, 1918–1963

SUMMARY

In this article Duncan Sutherland examines a subject that has been almost entirely ignored by British constitutional historians, the admission of women to the House of Lords. There had always been hereditary peeresses, their status as peeresses did not confer the right to sit in the House of Lords. The womens' suffrage movement had ignored the issue, and attempts to use the right of women to sit as MPs in the Acts of 1918 and 1919 to entitle peeresses to sit in the Lords failed. So did subsequent attempts to have them admitted by legislation: the political parties did not see it as an important issue, and it was inextricably mixed up with the wider question of general reform of the House of Lords. Only after the creation of life peerages, after 1958, were women admitted to the House, and even then the hereditary peeresses had to wait until 1963 for admission. The article concludes by considering the kinds of arguments advanced for continuing the exclusion of women. The long delay, in light of the feebleness and inconsistencies of the case for continuing the exclusion of women, seems to indicate the low importance that the political Establishment attached to the issue.