The Congressional Committee Intelligence System: Information,Oversight, and Change

Data from a study of top staffers on congressional committees indicate that Congress is rich in sources of information about the executive branch, and that it exploits these sources surprisingly well. An observer of the contemporary Congress can read Max Weber's classic essay on "bureaucracy" with minimum alarm. Weber's bureaucracy had an "overtowering" position relative to its nominal political masters because of its continuity, expertise, and ability to guard information (secrecy). U.S. congressional committees have built a formidable counter organization. Committee staffers are not mere "dilettantes" who stand opposite administrative "experts." They have a significant level of experience in the areas covered by the agencies they oversee, and well developed communication networks which give them significant opportunities to push aside any veil covering bureaucratic decisions and activities. Moreover, they indicate a surprisingly active approach to keeping track of agency activities, leading one to question the predominance in the contemporary period of the "fire alarm" approach described in the literature. The article develops reasons why an active information seeking style may be more attractive now than in the past and suggests a connection between environmental changes, changes in information seeking behavior, and changes in other aspects of oversight behavior.     

Lorca's Late Poetry. Andrew A. Anderson

Abstract

Joseph Brami, Madeleine Cottenet-Hage, and Pierre Verdaguer, eds. Regards sur la France des années 1980. Le roman (Stanford French and Italian Studies, 80) Saratoga, Calif.: ANMA Libri, 1994. 260 pp.

Jean-Claude Carron, ed. François Rabelais: Critical Assessments. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. 227 pp. $38.50.     

Evolution of Hindu Temples in Calcutta

Traditional norms of temple buildings, especially the form and location of Hindu temples, were meticulously standardized by Sanskrit texts to conform with a basic idea that a temple is the personal dwelling place of a deity.

This study, using a historical comparison method, presents tangible exndence of changes in the form and location of Calcutta's temples and the erosion of the old ideology within the urban milieu. A classification of temples according to their organizational characteristics provides insight into the nature of their changes, their cause and implications.     

Breaking the Bond: Investigating The Neolithic Expansion in Asia Minor in the Seventh Millennium BC

In the early seventh millennium BC an expansion of the Neolithic economy and sedentism took place in Asia Minor. This occurred nearly two millennia after the emergence of Neolithic societies in southern central Anatolia, which raises the question of how this expansion occurred, and why it came about at this particular moment. This paper considers various elements that might have played a role in this expansion episode, such as climate change, demography, and agricultural and social changes.     

Is there any interest in Nehemiah 5?

Abstract

It is generally held that the issue addressed by Nehemiah in Neh 5, 6–11 was that the wealthy of the restored community were charging interest or usury from their poorer fellow Jews. This article contends that a better sense is gained by understanding the Hebrew roots na?a and nasah as meaning “to have (or “press") a claim on” instead of “to lend”. It can then be seen that the situation facing Nehemiah was one of the wealthy making inappropriate demands for repayment of loans in a time of financial stringency, demands which were causing severe hardship to the less fortunate members of the community.