Book reviews

William H. Schauer, The Politics of Space: A Comparison of the Soviet and American Space Programs. New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1976. vii+317 pp. $24.95.

Maureen Perrie, The Agrarian Policy of the Russian Socialist‐Revolutionary Party: From Its Origins Through the Revolution of 1905–1907. London: CUP, 1976. xii+216 pp. £6.75.

Peter Christian Ludz, Ideologiebegriff und marxistische Theorie: Ansätze zu einer immanenten Kritik. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1976. xviii+337 pp.

George R. Feiwel, Growth and Reforms in Centrally Planned Economies: The Lessons of the Bulgarian Experience. New York: Praeger, 1977. xxix+345 pp. £18.50.

Edy Kaufman, The Superpowers and Their Spheres of Influence: The United States and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and Latin America. London: Croom Helm, 1976. 208 pp. £7.95.

Jane Shapiro and Peter J. Potichnyj (eds.), Change and Adaptation in Soviet and East European Politics. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1976. 236 pp. $18.50. £12.05.

Jane P. Shapiro and Lenard J. Cohen (eds.), Communist Systems in Comparative Perspective. New York: Anchor Books, 1974. xv+530 pp. $4.95.

Alec Nove, The Soviet Economic System. London: Allen & Unwin, 1977. 399 pp. £10.50, or £4.95 (paperback).

Joseph A. Mikus, Slovakia and the Slovaks. Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1977. xiv+224 pp. $14.00 or $8.00 (paperback).

Yeshayahu Jelinek, The Parish Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party 1939–1945. East European Monographs No. XIV. New York: Columbia UP, 1976. viii+206 pp. $18.75.

William C. Wallace, Czechoslovakia. London: Ernest Benn, 1977. xiv+374 pp. £9.50.

Josef Korbel, Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia. New York: Columbia UP, 1977. xii+346 pp. $18.70.

Vinod Mehta, Soviet Economic Policy: Income Differentials in the USSR. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1977. viii+134 pp. Rs. 45.     

Electoral competition and democratic decline in Nicaragua: uncovering an electorally viable platform for the right

Between the 1980s and 2006 Nicaragua was a competitive democracy where parties of the left and right won national presidential elections and relinquished power when their terms ended. More recently the quality of Nicaragua’s democracy has deteriorated. This change is due partly to autocratic behaviour by the elected leftist president, Daniel Ortega. But democratic decline is also the result of factional divisions and vague, outmoded policy commitments on the right that have crippled its electoral competitiveness, enabling Ortega’s behaviour. Utilizing an experimental research design, this article identifies two modernized policy platforms that could significantly broaden rightist electoral support in presidential campaigns, aiding democratic resurgence in Nicaragua. At a point when opposition parties are struggling to retain strength and coherence in many other democracies, the study presents a research strategy that could help clarify the ways such parties might reinvigorate their electoral competitiveness.     

LESSENING THE STING OF ASFA: THE REHABILITATION‐RELAPSE DILEMMA BROUGHT ABOUT BY DRUG ADDICTION AND TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS

Congress passed the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) as a response to children waiting in foster homes for years without permanent placement. In addressing the problem of permanency, however, Congress set a strict limit on how long a child could be in foster care (15 out of the most recent 22 months) before a state must either commence a proceeding to terminate parental rights or else lose valuable federal funding. Due to health care funding schemes and quality of treatment, this requirement, in particular, negatively impacts parents currently in drug rehabilitation whose parental rights may be permanently terminated before a realistic chance to recover is permitted. Although ASFA requires that states make “reasonable efforts” to keep families united, it does not define “reasonable efforts,” leaving parental rights and family unity subject to a chaotic interpretation of this requirement from state to state. “Reasonable efforts” should be interpreted to take into account current drug addiction and recovery research and drug court programs should be used to facilitate this goal. Research has shown that focusing on adequate treatment saves states money and improves the lives of children and their families, reducing the need for reliance on termination of parental rights.     

Thomas Craig’s Aetiology of Law and Society: Literary Dependence and Independence in the Jus Feudale

While Craig's relationship to, and emergence from, the French legal humanist tradition has always been widely recognized, this paper constitutes a deeper analysis of the specific threads connecting Craig to the humanist literature of the sixteenth century. It examines the first chapter to the Jus feudale and, by studying Craig's aetiology of law and society, assesses the literary and cultural influences on his historiographical product. It demonstrates that Craig's understanding of the earliest human society and of law's evolution was highly dependent on continental humanist literature and, above all, on the writings of Jean Bodin. Yet it also shows that Craig was capable of independent thought and rigorous critical analysis of sources. The article examines Craig's relationship to the writings of his fellow Scot and humanist, George Buchanan, whose De jure regni apud Scotos constitutes a vital intertextual frame for many aspects of Craig's thought, particularly as it relates to sovereignty, monarchy and the limits of royal power. Moreover, it will be seen that the first chapter, though seemingly an antiquarian digression, actually reflects Craig's thoughts on many significant political issues that were current in Scotland at the time he was writing.