Books in brief

Books

Gerald E. Caiden, The Commonwealth Bureaucracy, Melbourne University Press, pp. 443 + xvi, $8.50.

Denis Kenny, The Catholic Church and Freedom: The Vatican Council and Some Modern Issues, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia 1967, pp. 236, $4.00.

John H. Fenton, People and Parties in Politics, Scott, Foresman, Glenview, Ill., 1966, pp. 147, $U.S.3.95.

Bradbury Seasholes, Voting, Interest Groups, and Parties, Scott, Foresman, Glenview, Ill., 1966, pp. 136, $U.S.2.50.

P. H. Lane, An Introduction to Australian Constitutional Law, Law Book Co., Sydney 1967, pp. 131, $7.50.

P. E. Joske, Australian Federal Government, Butterworths, Sydney 1967, pp. 240, $7.75.

Raymond J. O'Dea, A Guide to Industrial Relations in Australia,West Publishing Corporation, Sydney 1967, pp. 119, $3.00.

J. E. Isaac and G. W. Ford, eds., Australian Labour Economics: Readings, Sun Books, Melbourne 1967, pp. 452, $3.50.

D. B. Williams, ed., Agriculture in the Australian Economy, Sydney University Press 1967, pp. 349, $6.00.

Edward C. Dreyer and Walter A. Rosenbaum, eds., Political Opinion and Electoral Behaviour: Essays and Studies, Wadsworth Publishing Co., Belmont, California, 1966, pp. 495, $4.95.

Lewis A. Coser, ed., Political Sociology: Selected Essays, Harper & Row, New York 1967, pp. 274, $2.88.

Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson, London 1967, pp. 85, $1.80.

William E. Griffith, ed., Communism in Europe: Continuity, Change, and the Sino‐Soviet Dispute, 2 vols., pp. 406, 439.

Robert H. McNeal, ed., International Relations Among Communists, Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1967, pp. 182, $U.S.2.45.

Australian Institute of Political Science, Communism in Asia: A Threat to Australia? ed. John Wilkes, Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1967, pp. 206, $1.95.

G. F. Trevallyn Jones, Saw‐Pitt Wharton: The political career from 1640 to 1691 of Philip, fourth Lord Wharton, Sydney University Press 1967, pp. 300, $5.00.

Pamphlets

John S. Baker, The Right to Strike and the White Collar Worker, Morgan Publications, Sydney 1967, pp. 42, 30c.

Catholics for Peace, Forum: Catholics, War, Vietnam, pp. 36, Sydney 1967, 40c + 10c postage.     

Do Lawyers Get More Votes?

ABSTRACT

In many western democracies, law has been the dominant occupational background of politicians. This raises the question whether lawyers get more votes when they run for election compared to non-lawyers. To our knowledge, this question has not been examined empirically over an extended period of time. Our study aims to fill this lacuna. We collected longitudinal data about the careers of all candidates in Canadian federal elections from 1921 to 2015. Our dataset is composed of about 32,000 observations including the occupation and electoral performance of every candidate who ran for office. Our analysis shows that lawyers do get more votes but that their personal electoral boost is very small.     

Michael Drayton’s Poly-Olbion: maritime England and the free seas debates

ABSTRACT

Attending to Poly-Olbion’s river dynamics, I argue that, implicitly opposing natural, inevitable unionization, Drayton demonstrates through visual and poetic means that any viable empire is forged by deliberate local choices about conjunction and affiliation. Further, I show that by reconfiguring Saxton’s maps, rejecting politically defined boundaries and perceptions, and situating three major rivers as the organizing features of the landscape and the empire, Drayton ultimately defines Britain as inherently and universally maritime. Moreover, linking Poly-Olbion to mare clausum and mare liberum debates, I reveal that Drayton situates the flow of self-aware rivers into the sea as an extension of Britain beyond its land boundaries. He thereby suggests that the eventual mixing of British waters with the larger oceans establishes the basis of Britain’s local and global maritime rights, linking regional autonomy and conjunction by choice with claims to both local offshore dominion and global freedom of navigation and trade.     

Human soft tissue preservation in the Cova des Pas site (Minorca Bronze Age)

The preservation process of soft tissues in an archeological context is mainly unknown because they occur only in truly exceptional situations. The Cova des Pas is a Bronze Age site in Minorca where the special conditions enabled the preservation of some soft tissues associated with 66 individuals. This finding allows the study of the preservation process that took place by means of the analysis of the histological and chemical characteristics of the tissues. Our results show that the preservation mechanism was the adipocere, because the fatty acids profile shows higher concentration of saturated than unsaturated fatty acids. The evidence indicates that the kind of funerary ritual and the environmental conditions favored this preservation.