Reviews

Israel Getzler, Kronstadt 1917–1921: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy. London: Cambridge University Press, 1983, xii + 296 pp. £25.00.

Hans Dieter Seibel and Ukandi G. Damachi, Self‐Management in Yugoslavia and the Developing World, London: Macmillan, 1982, 316 pp. £20.00. Fred Singleton and Bernard Carter, The Economy of Yugoslavia, London: Croom Helm, and New York: St. Martin's, 1982, 279 pp. £19.95.

Steven Rosefielde, False Science: Underestimating the Soviet Arms Buildup. An Appraisal of the CIA's Direct Costing Effort, 1960–80. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Books, 1982, xxi + 340 pp. p/b $14.95.

Donald S. Zagoria (ed.), Soviet Policy in East Asia, London: Yale University Press, 1982, xiii+360 pp. £21.00.

Aryeh Y. Yodfat, The Soviet Union and the Arabian Peninsula, London: Croom Helm, 1983, 191 pp. £13.95.

David Lane, The End of Social Inequality? Class, Status and Power Under State Socialism, London, Boston and Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1982, x+208 pp. h/b £12.95. p/b £4.95.

P. J. Potichnyj and J. S. Zacek (eds.), Politics and Participation under Communist Rule, New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1983, xvii+282 pp. $29.95.

Vladimir G. Treml, Alcohol in the USSR: A Statistical Study, Durham, N.C.: Duke Press Policy Studies, 1982, xiii + 103 pp. $27.75.

R. Amann and J. M. Cooper (eds.), Industrial Innovation in the Soviet Union, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1982, xxix+526 pp. £33.00.

Malcolm R. Hill, East‐West Trade, Industrial Co‐operation and Technology Transfer, London: Gower Publishing, 1983, xviii+217 pp. £15.00.

Roy Medvedev, (translated by Brian Pearce), Khrushchev, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982, x + 292 pp. £9.50.

Roger Munting, The Economic Development of the USSR, London: Croom Helm, 1982, 228 pp. (with one map and 54 tables). £13.95.

David Rousset, The Legacy of the Bolshevik Revolution: A Critical History of the USSR, volume 1, London/New York: Allison and Busby, 1982, translated by Alan Freeman, 333 pp. h/b £13.95, p/b £5.95.     

The Reality of Virtual Reality: The Internet and Gender Equality Advocacy in Latin America

This article examines the internet's potential to democratize gender equality advocacy in Latin America. Based on field research in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, it challenges the assumption that the internet's horizontal organization and widespread dissemination inherently or inevitably lead to greater democratization. It advances two interrelated arguments. First, the internet's potential to foster democratic relations and effective strategies in civil society depends on the consciousness with which advocates adopt, share, and deploy the technology. Second, the internet is a critical resource for marginalized or socially suspect groups and subjects, providing a unique means to express and transmit often ostracized ideas and identities.     

FAMILY COURTS

Oregon has encouraged experimentation with family courts using the one family-one judge approach. At the First Annual Family Law Conference, sponsored by the Oregon Judical Department and the Oregon Family Law Advisory Committee, the author presented a keynote talk addressing the "ethical" issues raised by the use of comprehensive family courts. In this adaptation, the author places the concept of family courts in historical perspective and then assesses the rationale for them and the policy trade-offs involved, as well as possible procedural safeguards. Consolidated family courts using judical specialists dealing with multiple interrelated parties and integrating an array of social services appear to offer a better approach to related party cases. The author concludes that the benefits outweigh the speculative risks.     

Addiction as Defect of the Will: Some Philosophical Reflections

Law and Philosophy -     

The narrative structure of policy analysis

This paper holds that the prior development of clear external criteria or principles is not always a useful avenue to the resolution of policy dilemmas, and that external criteria are sometimes as likely to emerge from proposed resolutions to policy issues as they are to govern those resolutions. In the absence of external criteria, stories meeting certain characteristics (truth, richness, consistency, congruency, and unity) can integrate necessary considerations, explain the development of current dilemmas, and point the way to resolutions. Not all policy analyses need to be in the narrative form-some analyses appropriately make tenseless arguments for particular principles. However, these principles invariably allow for many possible actions, and only a narrative can explain which particular course of action is desirable and why.