Keep Rowing: Amitai Etzioni and History

Reflecting on the most recent stage of his career, the communitarian, Amitai Etzioni, gives three reasons for what he perceives as his loss of influence. First, the media prefers an argument between strongly opposed positions, but Etzioni is neither liberal nor conservative. Second, the media prefers specialized intellectuals, but Etzioni has refused to “stick to his knitting.” Third, Etzioni has taken an unpopular, dovish position on China. I argue that Etzioni is mistaken about the reasons for his and communitarianism’s rise and perceived fall and offer a more optimistic assessment than he does of the potential influence of his thought. I use this local problem of historical interpretation to question Etzioni’s global interpretation of modern history.     

The politics of judicial discretion: Rethinking the interaction between national courts and the Eurpean court of justice

The recognition that courts play a significant role in the process of European integration has focused attention on the interaction between national judges and the European Court of Justice. The prevailing theoretical model of this interaction holds that a variety of incentives impel national judges to co‐operate with the ECJ by providing it with frequent preliminary references. This article tests the ability of the model to account for the behaviour of national courts during the period 1972–94. In assessing the utility of the model two central claims are made. First, that the model as currently constructed is incapable of explaining the patterns of references originating from various member states, particularly the consistent lack of references from British courts. Second, that the level of British references, and patterns of judicial co‐operation in general, can be better understood by questioning the model's core assumption ‐ that national judges face powerful incentives to refer to the ECJ. As a first step in this direction, the article examines how the discretion to make or withhold references bestows on national judges the power to hasten or retard the pace of integration as well as to influence specific policy outcomes.     

1989 Revisited: Getting to the bottom of the GDR'S demise

Aufarbeitung von Geschichte und Folgen der SED‐Diktatur in Deutschland. Nine Volumes. By Enquete Kommission. Frankfurt/M: Suhrkamp, 1995.

Aufarbeitung und Versöhnung, ‘Leben in der DDR, Leben nach 1989’. Three Volumes. By landtag mecklenburg‐vorpommern. Schwerin: Stiller & Balewski, 1996.

The Politics of Economic Decline in East Germany, 1945–1989. By Jeffrey Kopstein. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Der Zusammenbruch der DDR am Beispiel der mecklenburgischen Stadt Parchim. By Fred Mrotzek. Hamburg: Kramer Verlag, 1996     

East German political attitudes: Socialist legacies v. situational factors a false antithesis

This paper introduces the two main competing approaches that attempt to explain east German political attitudes in post‐unification Germany, the ‘situational thesis’ and the ‘socialisation thesis’. Furthermore, the paper suggests that these ‘either/or’ approaches are in fact inseparable and only make sense when taken together. Political attitudes in east Germany are influenced by the past, the recent past and the present. The result of both the socialisation process in the GDR and the traumatic transformation process following unification is weak civic participation and a lack of trust in formal institutions. Without trust and without a vibrant civil society, economic performance will remain low.     

The Carbondale Caper

Abstract

“In July, 1950, Wesley R. Fishel, then an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State College, met Ngo Dinh Diem, a Vietnamese politician out of power, in Tokyo, Japan. The professor and the politician kept up a correspondence and, in early 1951, Fishel had his friend made a consultant to Michigan State's Governmental Research Bureau.” With these words Robert Scigliano and Guy H. Fox begin “Technical Assistance in Vietnam: The Michigan State University Experience”. The authors, whose duties with the Michigan State University Group (MSUG) in Vietnam “spanned all but four of the project's eighty-six months,” describe a university activity, infiltrated by the CIA, which still sends shudders through professors across the country.     

REAGANISM AS CORPORATE LIBERALISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AMERICAN FUTURE

The "corporate liberal" regime that held together in America from the end of World War I1 to the 1960s was marked by broad agreement on ideology, public policy and a stable ruling coalition centered in the Democratic Party. This regime unraveled in the late 1960s and 1970s with the relative decline in American military and economic hegemony and the rise of a "left liberal insurgency". Key corporate liberal intellectuals and constituencies migrated to the Republican Party under Reagan. Reaganism will not sustain itself because its coalition partners are too disparate, its failure to transform the Republicans into a majority party, a lack of consensus on many issues, and the continued decline of the U.S. in the international economy. Corporate liberalism will find itself migrating to a revitalized Democratic Party, under a centrist leadership favoring fiscal responsibility, government-corporate partnerships, and a more efficient military.     

The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence

The results of two studies are reported. Study I involved the development of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA), a self-report instrument for use with adolescents. Subject were 179 college students aged 16–20 years. Item content of the instrument was suggested by attachment theory's formulations concerning the nature of feelings toward attachment figures. In Study II, the convergent validity of the IPPA was examined. Also, a hierarchial regression model was employed to investigate the association between quality of attachment and self-esteem, life-satisfaction, and affective status. Respondents were 86 adolescents from the Study I sample. As hypothesized, perceived quality of both parent and peer attachments was significantly related to psychological well-being. Results of the development of a theoretically focused, exploratory classification scheme indicated that adolescents classified as highly securely attached reported greater satisfaction with themselves, a higher likelihood of seeking social support, and less symptomatic response to stressful life events.She received her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the study of attachment, stress and coping styles in adolescence.He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. His research interests include attachment relationships across the life span and their influence on personality, and the development of deaf children.