Explaining accommodation and resistance to demands for independence referendums in the UK and Spain

This article examines why the UK Government accepted the 2014 Scottish independence referendum while the Spanish Government opposes a similar referendum in Catalonia. Adopting a most similar research design, we argue that the variation is best explained by perceived political opportunities by the two ruling parties. These are embedded in different conceptions of the state and constitutional designs, mostly mononational in Spain and mostly plurinational in the UK but multiple and contested in both cases. In Spain, vote‐seeking calculations incentivise the Popular Party to oppose a referendum, while its mononational conception of the state and the Spanish constitutional design provide a further constraint and a discursive justification for their position. In the UK, David Cameron's accommodating position was based on the view that the Scottish referendum was low risk – as support for independence was minimal – with a high reward: the annihilation of the independence demand. The Conservatives have recently adopted a more restrictive position because seeming political advantage has changed. The findings suggest that independence referendums will continue to be rare events.     

Jeremy Bentham on liberty of taste

This article examines Jeremy Bentham’s treatment of taste in his essays on sexuality, in the context of the historical development of the idea of taste as a singular practice with a broadly social character. My analysis of Bentham’s comments on taste in these essays also engages with Bentham’s criticisms of David Hume’s writing on social standards of taste. Bentham’s essays on sexuality enable us to understand why he condemns Hume’s critical, and avowedly unprejudiced, analysis of good and bad tastes, with as much vehemence as he does the anti-democratic attitudes of ‘aristocratical’ taste. In his essays on sexuality, Bentham defines taste as a disposition to derive pleasure, which assumes meaning in a social context where human beings transact with one another to secure and increase their enjoyment. By this definition, judgements on good and bad tastes are aspects of an anti-social practice that exerts a negative influence on what Bentham calls ‘an uncontrolled choice’ that links pleasure to utility.     

An Application of Taylor's Power Law to Measure Overdispersion of the Unemployed in English Labor Markets

Taylor's power law (TPL) is the power relation between mean densities and variance of natural populations, and described as one of ecology's few ubiquitous laws. Although the power model has been increasingly applied in social systems modeling, including economics, this article, using English and Welsh economic data as an applied example, suggests that TPL ought to be imported more carefully. The article seeks to convince readers that ecological population methodologies can have an important role in analysis of human spatial behavior, and that this function should not be diminished in pursuit of quick interdisciplinary results. Through the production of “scale‐adjusted dispersion indicators,” the article proposes an application of TPL that is quite different from its use in ecological modeling.     

Reviews

THE ECOLOGY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. F. W. Riggs. Under the auspices of the Indian Institute of Public Administration. Bombay, Asia Publishing House, 1961. Pp. viii + 162. Price 20/‐ sterling.

THE NATURE OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY. C. A. W. Manning. London, G. Bell & Sons Ltd., 1962. Pp. xi + 220. English price 30/‐.

STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN FEDERALISM. M. J. C. Vile. London, Oxford University Press, 1962. Pp. x + 206. Australian Price 46/6.

AMERICAN DIPLOMACY IN A NEW ERA. Stephen D. Kertesz (ed.). University of Notre Dame Press, 1961. Pp. 601. U.S. $10.00.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OP RUSSIA AND THE SOVIET UNION. Michael T. Florinsky (ed.). New York, McGraw Hill Book Company Inc., 1961. Pp. xiv + 624. U.S. $23.

THE TAPROOT OP SOVIET SOCIETY. Nicholas P. Vakar. New York, Harper & Bros., 1961. Pp. xiii + 204. U.S. $4.75.

INDONESIAN ECONOMICS: THE CONCEPT OF DUALISM IN THEORY AND POLICY. Selected Studies on Indonesia by Dutch Scholars, Vol. VI. The Hague, W. van Hoeve, 1961. Pp. xii + 443. U.S. $7.50.

KAUTILYA: A REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS.

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNIST CHINA 1949–1960. T. J. Hughes and D. E. T. Luard. Under the auspices of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. London. O.U.P., 1961. Pp. viii + 215. Second Edition. Australian price 41/6d.

TOJO AND THE COMING OF THE WAR. R. J. C. Butow. Princeton University Press, 1961. Pp. 540.

PARTIES AND PEOPLE: A SURVEY BASED ON THE LA TROBE ELECTORATE. Creighton Burns. Melbourne University Press, 1961. Pp. x + 173. Australian price 28/6d.     

Book reviews—comptes rendus

Seventeenth‐Century France—France du dix‐septième siècle

Thomas WORCESTER, Seventeenth‐Century Cultural Discourse: France and the Preaching of Bishop Camus, Mouten de Gruyter, Berlin & New York, 1997, ix + 306p., ISBN 3–11–015220–7 DM 228

John A. LYNN, Giant of the Grand Siècle. The French Army 1610–1715, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, 651pp. £45 ISBN 0 521 57273 8.

Themes in Cultural History—Thèmes en histoire culturelle

Susan PLANN, A Silent Minority: Deaf Education in Spain, 1550–1835, University of California Press, Berkeley, California & London, 1997, xvi + 323 pp. £40.

Charles DIERICK and Pascal LEFEVRE eds., Forging a New Medium: The Comic Strip in the Nineteenth Century, VUB University Press, Brussels, 1998.

Larry WOLFF, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of Enlightenment, Stanford University Press, Stanford 1994. xii + 419 pp. Paperback, £15.95.

Social History—Histoire sociale

Ann‐Louise SHAPIRO, Breaking the Codes: Female Criminality in Fin‐de‐siècle Paris, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1996, pp. viii + 265, ISBN 0–8047–2 693–0.

Nancy GREEN, Du Sentier à la 7e avenue. La confection et les immigrés, Paris‐New York, 1880–1980, Paris, Le Seuil, collection “L'univers historique”, 1998.

Nancy GREEN, Ready‐To‐Wear and Ready‐To‐Work. A Century of Industry and immigrants in Paris and New York, Duke University Press, 1997.

Lewis J. EDINGER & Brigitte L. NACOS, From Bonn to Berlin. German politics in transition, Columbia University Press, New York, 1998, ISBN 023108413729 £13.50£39.50

Themes in European Politics—Aspects du politique européenne

Dimitrije DJORDJEVIC, Scars and Memory: Four Lives in One Lifetime, Boulder, East European Monographs, 1997, pp. 463, ISBN 0–88033–368–5, £34.

Grigor MCCLELLAND, Embers of War: Letters from a Quaker reliefworker in war‐torn Germany, IB Tauris 1997, pp. xxiii + 230, ISBN 1–86064–312–4, £25.

Michael BERKOWITZ Western Jewry and the Zionist project, 1914–1933, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0 521 47087 0 hardback £40

Paul W. DOERR, British foreign policy 1919–1939, Manchester, Manchester University Press 1998, ISBN hb: 0–7190–4671–8 pb:0–7190–4672–6. £45.00 (hb) £14.99 (pb).     

Localisation and William Macewen's early brain surgery Part I: the controversy

Neurosurgery for the removal of brain tumours based on localising signs is usually dated from the 1884 operation by Bennett and Godlee. However, within weeks of that operation claims were made on behalf of William Macewen, the Glasgow surgeon, to have been the real pioneer of such surgery. According to Macewen's protagonists, he had conducted seven similar operations earlier than Bennett and Godlee and, in a notable 1888 address, Macewen described these seven pre-1884 cases and a number of others operated on after 1884. This paper, which is in two parts, contains an evaluation of the claims made for the priority of Macewen's pre-1884 operations. Part I deals mainly with Macewen's work in fields other than brain surgery that are relevant to it and sets out the facts of the controversy. It begins with a brief biography of Macewen, describes his pioneering work in antiseptic and aseptic surgery, his work on osteotomy and bone regeneration, and his use in brain surgery of the knowledge so gained. Part I concludes with an examination of the battle waged in the newspapers between Macewen's and Bennett's and Godlee's supporters, and of previously unpublished correspondence between Macewen himself, David Ferrier and Hughes Bennett. The primary records of the patients on whom Macewen operated, together with other materials relevant to the controversy, are examined in Part II.     

Reviews

Howard R. Penniman (ed.) Australia at the Polls: The National Elections of 1980 and 1983, Washington, DC, George Allen and Unwin for American Enterprise Institute, 1983, pp.351. $14.95 (paper)

Alexander Kouzmin (ed.) Public Sector Administration: New Perspectives, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1983. pp.329. $15.95

Blanche D'Alpuget, Robert J Hawke: A Biography, Schwartz, 1982, pp.418. $19.95

Frank Cain, The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1983, pp. 306. $24.95

Leonie Sandercock and Michael Berry, Urban Political Economy: The Australian Case, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1983, pp.193. $22.50, $4.50 (paper)

Brian W. Head (ed.), State and Economy in Australia, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, pp. 305. $25.00, $12.99 (paper)

Bruce O'Meagher (ed.) The Socialist Objective: Labor and Socialism, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger 1983, pp. 198, $24.95, $11.95 (paper) and John Reeves and Kelvin Thomson (eds) Labor Essays 1983: Policies and Programs for the Labor Government, Blackburn, Drummond 1983, pp. 197. $12.95 (paper)

James Jupp, Ethnic Politics in Australia, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1984, pp.213. $22.95, $11.95 (paper)

Archives Guide to Collections, Melbourne, Archives Board of Management University of Melbourne, 1983, pp.210. $18.00, $9.50 (paper)

Nancy Viviani, The Long Journey: Vietnamese Migration and Settlement in Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1984, pp.316. $26.60

Christopher Cunneen: Kings’ Men: Australia's Governors‐General from Hopetoun to Isaacs. Sydney, George Allen & Unwin Australia, 1983, pp. 237. $24.95, $12.95 (paper)

Dennis Phillips, Cold War Two and Australia, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1983. pp.122. $15.95, $6.95 (paper)

Harry Redner and Jill Redner, Anatomy of the World: The Impact of the Atom on Australia and the World, Melbourne, Fontana/Collins, 1983, pp. 368. $8.95 (paper)

David McKay, American Politics and Society, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1983, pp. 336. $55.00, $18.95 (paper)

David Martin and Peter Mullen (eds) Unholy Warfare: The Church and the Bomb. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1983, pp.247. $34.95, $13.95 (paper)

Barry Gustafson, Labour's Path to Political Independence — The Origins and Establishment of the New Zealand Labour Party 1900–19, Auckland, Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1980, pp. 199. $18.50

Christopher T. Husbands, Racial Exclusion and the City: The Urban Support of the National Front, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp.191. $49.50

Charles F. Sabel, Work and Politics: The Division of Labor in Industry, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 304. $45.50

David Coates and Gordon Johnston (eds) Socialist Strategies, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1983, pp.294. $49.50, $16.50 (paper)

R.J. Moore, Escape from Empire: the Attlee Government and the Indian Problem, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1983, pp. 376. $48.75

T.H. Rigby & Bohdan Harasymiw (eds) Leadership Selection and Patron‐Client Relations in the USSR and Yugoslavia, London, Macmillan. 1983, pp.246. £20

Theodore H. Friedgut, Political Participation in the USSR, Princeton, Princeton U.P., 1979, pp.353. $16.25 (paper)

Mervyn Matthews, Education in the Soviet Union: Policies and Institutions Since Stalin, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp.225. $15.95 (paper)

Ronan Paddison, The Fragmented State: The Political Geography of Power, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp. 315. $54.00, $21.95 (paper)

William H. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1982, pp. 405. $39.95

David Held and others (eds) States and Societies, Oxford, Martin Robertson and the Open University, 1983, pp.629. $16.50 (paper)

Andrew Linklater, Men and Citizens in the Theory of International Relations, London, Macmillan/London School of Economics and Political Science, 1982, pp. 232. $36.00

Celso Furtado, Accumulation and Development: The Logic of Industrial Civilization, trans, by S. Macedo, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1983, pp.201. $39.95

Irving Louis Allen, The Language of Ethnic Conflict, Social Organization and Lexical Culture, New York, Columbia University Press, 1983, pp.162. US$12.50

Stephen P. Dunn, The Fall and Rise of the Asiatic Mode of Production, London, Routeledge and Kegan Paul, pp.124.

Preston King (ed.) The History of Ideas, An Introduction to Method, London & Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp. 334. $16.50 (paper)

Howard Williams, Kant's Political Philosophy. Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp. 292. £20

Gerard Bekerman, Marx and Engels: A Conceptual Concordance, Oxford, Blackwell, 1983, pp.205. $62

Nicholas Abercrombie and John Urry, Capital, Labour and the Middle Classes, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1983, pp. 169, $29.95, $13.95. (paper)

Rob Steven, Classes in Contemporary Japan, London, Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 357. $45.50

R.W. Connell, Which Way Is Up? Essays on Sex, Class and Culture, Sydney, George Allen and Un‐win, 1983, pp.278. $19.95, $9.95 (paper)

Hester Eisenstein, Contemporary Feminist Thought Sydney, Unwin Paperbacks, 1984, pp 196. $16.95, $7.95

Bettina Cass et al. Why So Few? Women Academics in Australian Universities Sydney University Press, 1983, pp.253. $14.00

Jocelynne Scutt Even in the Best of Homes: Violence in the Family, Melbourne, Penguin, 1983, pp.303. $9.95