Champagne socialism: Luxury in Fourier's utopia

Fourier's vision of material gratification in works such as Le Nouveau Monde amoureux comprehensively overturns a suspicion of the destabilising effects of luxury inherent to classical European political theory. This article explores the basis upon which Fourier was able to achieve this revolution. It focuses on his theories of human psychology, his insistence on the positive effects of material inequality in a harmoniously regulated society, and his abolition of the social division between mental and physical labour on which earlier critiques of luxury had been based. Set against an investigation of attitudes towards luxury in early modern and Enlightenment political thought, it argues that Fourier's utopia is ultimately framed by the all-encompassing gaze of a thinker who eliminates potential tensions between individual gratification and social harmony through blunt assertion rather than theoretical engagement with his antecedents.     

Reviews

ROBERT J. YOUNG. French Foreign Policy, Nineteen Eighteen to Nineteen Forty-Five: A Guide to Research and Research Materials, ed. Christoph M. Kimmich. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1981. Pp. xv, 242. $17.50 (US). Reviewed by A.S. Kanya-Forstner

CHRISTOPH M. KIMMICH. German Foreign Policy, Nineteen Eighteen to Nineteen Forty Five: A Guide to Research and Research Materials. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1981. Pp. ix, 293. $17.50 (US). Reviewed by Ulrich Trumpener

ALAN CASSELS. Italian Foreign Policy, Nineteen Eighteen to Nineteen Forty- Five: A Guide to Research and Research Materials, ed. Christoph M. Kimmich. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources Inc. 1981. Pp. xi, 271. $17.50 (US). Reviewed by Peter C. Kent

VOJTECH MASTNY. Russia's Road to the Cold War: Diplomacy, Warfare, and the Politics of Communism, 1041–1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979. Pp. xix, 409. $16.95 (US). Reviewed by Teddy J. Uldricks

R. KEITH SCHOPPA. Chinese Elites and Political Change: Zhejiang Province in the Early Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982. Pp. 280. $30.00 (US). Reviewed by J. Shrecker

EDWARD M. SPIERS. Haldane: An Army Reformer. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1980. Pp. vi, 240. £10.00. Reviewed by John E. Kendle

IAN NISH, ed. Anglo-Japanese Alienation, 1919–1952: Papers of the Anglo-Japanese Conference on the History of the Second World War. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Pp. 320. $37.50. Reviewed by Ray Jones

JOHN C. G. RÖHL and NICOIAS SOMBART, eds. Kaiser Wilhelm II: New Interpretations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Pp. 319. $39.50 (US). Reviewed by Konrad H. Jarausch

ROBIN FISHER and J.M. BUMSTED, eds. An Account of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in 1785 and 1786 by Alexander Walker. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982. Pp. 319. $24.95. Reviewed by Christon I. Archer

ERIK P. HOFFMANN and ROBBIN F. LAIRD. The Politics of Economic Modernization in the Soviet Union. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982. Pp. 215. $19.50 (US). Reviewed by Cyril E. Black

WERNER G. HAHN. Postwar Soviet Politics. The Fall of Zhdanov and the Defeat of Moderation, 1946–53. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1982. Pp. 243. $19.50 (US). Reviewed by Richard K. Debo

VICTOR ROTHWELL. Britain and the Cold War, 1941–1947. London: Jonathan Cape, 1982. Pp. 551. £16. Reviewed by Gerald Jordan

DAN P. SILVERMAN. Reconstructing Europe after the Great War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. Pp. vii, 347. $25.00 (US). Reviewed by Keith L. Nelson     

Italy in the Aftermath of the First World War

France and Italy at the Paris Peace Conference     

Ichnofacies of the Stairway Sandstone fish-fossil beds (Middle Ordovician,Northern Territory,Australia)

The Stairway Sandstone is a 30–560 m thick succession of Middle Ordovician siliciclastic sedimentary rocks within the Amadeus Basin of central Australia, deposited in the epeiric Larapintine Sea of northern peri-Gondwana. The Stairway Sandstone is significant as one of only two known Gondwanan successions to yield articulated arandaspid (pteraspidomorph agnathan) fish. Herein we use the ichnology of the Stairway Sandstone to reveal insights into the shallow marine habitat of these early vertebrates, and compare it with that of other known pteraspidomorph-bearing localities from across Gondwana. The Stairway Sandstone contains a diverse Ordovician ichnofauna including 22 ichnotaxa of Arenicolites, Arthrophycus, Asterosoma, Cruziana, Didymaulichnus, Diplichnites, Diplocraterion, ?Gordia, Lockeia, Monocraterion, Monomorphichnus, Phycodes, Planolites, Rusophycus, Skolithos and Uchirites. These ichnofauna provide a well-preserved example of a typical Ordovician epeiric sea assemblage, recording the diverse ethologies of tracemakers in a very shallow marine environment of flashy sediment accumulation and regularly shifting sandy substrates. New conodont data refine the age of the Stairway Sandstone to the early Darriwilian, with ichnostratigraphic implications for the Cruziana rugosa group and Arthrophycus alleghaniensis.     

The Creative Industries,Creative Occupations and Innovation in London

London is a global hub of the creative industries. These industries are seen as both innovative in themselves and an input in innovation processes in other sectors. Yet few studies have tested these relationships. This article investigates these issues using large-scale survey data for London. Using four measures of product and process innovation, we find no evidence that London's creative industries are more innovative than other sectors. Yet, individuals doing creative occupations in other sectors are a robust driver of product innovation in London's firms. The results suggest that occupations performed in London may be an important driver of product innovation in the city, and firms in other sectors may use creative occupations to develop new products in the capital. This finding is supportive of policies attempting to stimulate the creative industries by integrating creative occupations into firms across the whole economy.     

Political Obstacles to Decentralization: Evidence from Argentina and the Philippines

Decentralization has swept across the developing world in recent years. Although the speed and scope of the shift toward more decentralized practices is striking, decentralization is neither inevitable nor irreversible. Rather, it faces enormous political obstacles and can be subject to serious setbacks. This article accounts for attempts by national politicians to thwart decentralization in two countries that recently adopted some of the most significant decentralizing changes in their respective regions: Argentina and the Philippines. Based on fieldwork in each country, it suggests that even after the political decision to decentralize has been made, national politicians may face deep‐seated incentives to preserve centralized control over fiscal policy. In Argentina, President Carlos Menem partially reversed the previous decentralization of revenue because fiscally‐independent provincial governors were a challenge to his political interests and capabilities. In the Philippines, legislators attempted to reverse and then circumvent decentralization since it threatened their status as brokers claiming personal credit for negotiating fiscal transfers from the centre. The article identifies an intermediate outcome in both countries, according to which decentralizing policies are neither entirely reversed nor implemented as initially designed.     

The Politics of Connectivity: The Role of Big Business in UK Education Technology Policy

Since 1997, the United Kingdom (UK) government has embarked upon a series of education policy initiatives based around the increased role of private interests in both policy formulation and implementation. This article takes a detailed look at private sector involvement in education policymaking and implementation using the current "National Grid for Learning" (NGfL) technology policy drive as a contemporary form. Based on a series of in-depth interviews with key public and private actors in the NGfL the article covers the role of business in the origins, policy formation, and eventual implementation of the initiative. It concludes by discussing the function big business can be said to be playing in UK education policy and the bearing this may have on the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of such policies.