Book reviews

Negotiating Development. P. Healey, M. Purdue and F. Ennis, London: E&FN Spon, 1995, 212 pp, £29.95 hb, ISBN 0 419 19410 X

The Rise of the Rustbelt. P. Cooke (Ed.), London, UCL Press, 1995, i‐x+272 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85728 420 8; £14.95 pb, ISBN 1 85728 419 4

Urban Change and Renewal: The Paradox of Place. P. Garrahan and P. Stewart (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1994, viii+200 pp, £32.50 hb, ISBN 1 85628 610 X

Territorial Competition in an Integrating Europe. P. Cheshire and I. Gordon (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1995, 317 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85972 112 5

Reconstituting Rurality: Class, Community and Power in the Development Process. Jonathan Murdoch and Terry Marsden, London: UCL Press, 1994, xv + 256 pp. ISBN 1 85728 041 5 hb     

Das Tocqueville Problem: Individualism and Equality between Democracy in America and Ancient Regime

This article argues that there is a major inconsistency between Tocqueville's arguments about individualism and equality of conditions as described in his books Ancient Regime and the Revolution and Democracy in America. In the latter, which is the basis for conventional analysis of Tocqueville in America, individualism is taken as a spontaneously emerging feature of the modern, enlightened society, heralding the European future. In the Ancient Regime, however, leveling individualism is conceptualized as a by-product of the centralizing political dynamic of the modern European state, crushing all intermediate sources of social authority. If we accept this theory, America would be the last place one would expect to find individualism or equality, because the American institutions of a modern, centralized state were much weaker than in Europe, yet Tocqueville does look to the United States as such an example. It is argued in this article that the different genealogies of individualism developed by the French thinker cannot be satisfactorily reconciled; the alternative approach suggested here is to combine Tocqueville's analysis from Ancient Regime with modern historical research about early England and America which confirm them, making the analysis of individualism from Democracy in America largely superfluous.     

Astronomy,Architecture, and Landscape in Prehispanic Mesoamerica

This article synthesizes recent advances in the study of astronomy and worldview in architectural and urban planning in Mesoamerica. Throughout most of this cultural area, the practice of orienting civic and ceremonial buildings followed similar principles, although regional and time-dependent variations are present. Analysis of alignment data has revealed the existence of distinct and widespread orientation groups; most refer to sunrises and sunsets on particular dates, although two groups can be related to lunar and Venus extremes. Astronomically relevant directions frequently dominate considerable parts of urban layouts. The orientation and the location of important buildings often were conditioned by astronomical criteria and beliefs about specific landscape features; particularly notable are structures that were aligned to prominent mountaintops on the local horizon. Based on a variety of contextual data, I interpret the uses and significance of orientations in terms of agricultural concerns, cosmological concepts, and political ideology. I outline the evolution of orientation practices, drawing attention to pan-Mesoamerican trends, regional patterns, and diffusion processes.     

A troubled relationship: Yugoslavia and the European Economic Community in détente

The article examines the origins and evolution of Yugoslav policy toward the European Economic Community (EEC) from the mid-1960s until the signing of the Cooperation Agreement in 1980. The signing of the Treaty of Rome and the Community's initial success in the 1960s had a profound impact on the direction of Yugoslav foreign trade. Increased trade relations with the EEC and the domestic introduction of the 1965 Economic Reform proved vital in persuading Belgrade to become the first Communist country to establish diplomatic and trade relations with the Community in 1968. The article argues that these relations in the 1970s became of increasing relevance to the economic and, ultimately, political stability of Yugoslavia.