Taylor Cole

A Suggested Research Strategy in Western European Government and Politics.

If one compares the literature on American government and politics with that which concerns continental Europe, it is quite evident that the two fields of study in the last decades have proceeded on somewhat different assumptions as to the scope and methods of political science. This divergence is of relatively recent origin. Before World War I a substantial number of leading American students in this field had their training in European centers of learning, and brought back with them the rich tradition of European historical, philosophical, and legal scholarship. With noteworthy exceptions the study of continental European political institutions still tends to be dominated by this historical, philosophical, and legal emphasis. The continuity of scholarship in the continental European area has -been broken by the two world wars, by totalitarian regimes, by enemy occupation, and by the persistence of internal antagonism and cleavages. With the exception of a few years in the 1920s, the entire era since World War I has been one of catastrophe or the atmosphere of catastrophe in which scientific inquiry and the renewal of the scientific cadres could be carried on only for short periods, under the greatest handicaps, and with inadequate resources. In the United States, beginning after the First World War and stimulated in some measure by the great European innovators such as Ostrogorski, Bryce, Weber, Pareto, and Michels, the conception of the scope of political science began to undergo a significant change. This development occurred in an experimental and pragmatic way, and with little theoretical explication. As American political scientists discovered that governmental institutions in their actual practice deviated from their formal competences, they supplemented the purely legal approach with an observational or functional one. The problem now was not only what legal powers these agencies had, but what they actually did, how they were related to one another, and what roles they played in the making and execution of public policy. In this respect they were plowing more deeply into ground which had been broken by such English political scientists as Bagehot and Bryce. Once having departed from the legal framework and method, they began to probe into the non-legal levels and processes of politics, and a substantial literature developed including-in addition to realistic and functional analyses of the presidency, the courts, the Congress, and the bureaucracy-studies of non-legal or semi-legal institutions and processes such as political parties, pressure groups, public opinion, and political behavior.

Italy's Fascist Bureaucracy.

Neglected by foreign critics of the Fascist regime and taken for granted by the Italian people, the bureaucracy of Italy has been eclipsed by more spectacular institutions. This “core of modern government” has been concealed by a black-shirted periphery embossed with some corporative theories. From this center, some studies of more than the mere structural features of Fascist Italy might well begin. In any case, the “peculiar Anglo-Saxon pastime of making foreign personnel studies,” as an Italian civil servant recently observed, will admit of a consideration of certain of the functional elements of the Italian bureaucracy—the hierarchical and career aspects.

Bibliographical Material on Political Parties and Pressure Groups in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

In recent years political parties in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa have received the increasing attention of political scientists within the United States. Evidence of this trend is afforded by the works, completed and in progress, of such competent scholars as Louise Overacker, Dean E. McHenry, Lionel H. Laing, and Leslie Lipson on New Zealand and Australia, and Gwendolen M. Carter and Eugene P. Dvorin on South Africa. The purpose of this bibliography is to list the most significant writings in English on parties and pressure groups in these Commonwealth countries, to give brief appraisals of some works, and to indicate the availability of certain source materials. Sources on political parties and pressure groups include not only books, but also some selected articles, general reports of parties, governmental documents, and unpublished theses. The addresses of party offices, and of individuals with private collections, have been included.

The Role of the Labor Courts in Western Germany

F ROM THEIR INCEPTION the labor courts have occupied an important and controversial position in the system of labor relations in Germany. Though it can claim much earlier ancestry, the labor court structure bears the heavy imprint of the Labor Court Act of the Weimar Republic. Since 1926, when this act was passed, and the present day, some three decades have elapsed. These thirty years have seen the labor courts pass from the Weimar Republic, through the Third Reich and the Allied Occupation, to the Federal Republic. With the exception of the Nazi epoch, the labor courts have played a significant part during this period in the development of modern German labor law, both the collective labor law and individual labor law. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the role of the labor courts in the development of certain aspects of the individual labor law, with emphasis on the post-World War II period. But first a brief glance might be given at the historical evolution of the present system of labor courts.

Lessons from Recent European Experience

SINCE the outbreak of World War II American influences have been felt in the organization and functioning of the bureaucracies of European states. Some of these influences have been the results of efforts of American officials abroad, notably those stationed in the occupied countries; others have come from American research and writing in the field of public personnel administration which have become better known abroad through the postwar visitation and educational programs sponsored by public and private agencies in the