Perspectives on the peasantries of Europe

A collected volume on The Peasantries of Europe: From the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, edited by Tom Scott, is reviewed. It contains an Introduction by Scott; papers on France (Jonathan Dewald and Liana Vardi), Iberia (Teofilo F. Ruiz), Italy (S.R. Epstein), Western Germany (Thomas Robisheaux), East‐Elbian Germany and Poland (William W. Hagen), the Austrian Empire (Hermann Rebel), Russia (Edgar Melton), the Ottoman Empire (Fikret Adanir), Scandinavia (David Gaunt) and England (Richard M. Smith); and a concluding essay (John Langton). The volume's scope and the claims made on its behalf, as a work of major historiographic importance, are noted; the theoretical/ methodological intent and the authors’ remit identified; and the individual papers considered critically. It provides a useful depiction of the specificities of a wide range of European peasantries. It is, however, in several ways, analytically defective. This is so, it is argued, inasmuch as the authors’ quest for diversity turns out to be unhelpful; it is structured by an inadequate political economy, seen in an absence, or deficient treatment, of various crucial themes — most notably sharecropping, differential land productivity, social differentiation, and the state; and the volume has major shortcomings in terms of comparative history (including a curious neglect of the influential work of Robert Brenner).

The Peasantries of Europe: From the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries, edited by Tom Scott. London and New York: Longman. 1998. Pp.xi + 416. £44 (hardback); £19.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 582 10132 8 and 10131 X     

The German intelligence estimates in the west, 1885–1914

Little has been known of German intelligence estimates prior to the First World War. The recent discovery of several German intelligence documents, including a classified history of German pre-war intelligence operations which was written during the inter-war period, in addition to some important German pre-war intelligence analysis, now gives considerable insight into the German intelligence estimates as well as their relationship to German war planning from 1885 to 1914.     

Architects of the State: International Financial Institutions and the Reconstruction of States in East Asia

For international financial institutions (IFIs), it is a continuing puzzle why the global norms they propagate are enacted either reluctantly or not at all. This article shows that failures of enactment and implementation frequently occur because many IFI‐initiated law reforms go far beyond changing the law; they amount to a restructuring of the state itself and the accompanying redistributions of power. This article demonstrates how state restructuring can occur in a technical area of commercial law by reanalyzing the ways global and transnational designs of corporate bankruptcy regimes fared between 1998 and 2006 in three countries variously affected by the Asian financial crisis: China, Indonesia, and South Korea. State restructuring occurred by (1) shifting the boundary between the market and state, (2) shifting power inside the state, and (3) vesting new powers in the state. The article identifies the recursive dynamics through which the changes unfolded and shows how variations in the efficacy of international architects of the state can be attributed to the interplay of four sets of factors: the coherence of global norms, the relative power of global versus state actors, domestic demand and mobilization for restructuring, and the extent of state restructuring that reforms will induce.     

Racial Vote Dilution: Impact of the Reagan DOJ and the Burger Court on the Voting Rights Act

Since passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) and the subsequentregistration of millions of minority voters, racially basedvoting discrimination has shifted from a strategy of vote denialto one of vote dilution. The VRA, especially Section 2 and 5,is the dramatic congressional effort to eliminate strategiesthat deny effective political participation to millions of citizens.However, the VRA has to be aggressively implemented by the U.S.Department of Justice (DOJ), and it has to be broadly validated,in concrete cases and controversies in federal courts, if itis to blunt the vote discrimination/dilution strategy. Whilethe Warren Court saw Section 5 as a radical but legitimate toolto end the perpetuation of voting discrimination, the BurgerCourt has seen Section 5 in less sweeping terms. And while theCarter administration DOJ aggressively supported minority plaintiffsin federal voting rights litigation brought under Sections 2and 5, the Reagan administration has redirected civil rightspolicy, including the methodology of implementing Sections 2and 5 of the VRA.     

Discussion Law & Society Review at Fifty: A Debate on the Future of Publishing by the Law & Society Association

This contribution presents a series of statements on the future of publishing by the Law & Society Review and the Law & Society Association generally. Framed by the first author's introductory and concluding comments are contributions by Halliday, Liu, Morrill, Seron, and Silbey. This debate, based on a LSR 50th anniversary panel held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the LSA, is intended to open up a broader conversation among members of the Association. Positions by individual contributors can only be linked to them and not to the group of contributors.