Reviews

Gino Bedani, Politics and Ideology in the Italian Workers’ Movement: Union Development and the Changing Role of the Catholic and Communist Subcultures in Postwar Italy, Berg, Oxford, 1995, xiv + 365 pp., ISBN 0–85496–827‐X, £44.95.

Anna Bull and Paul Corner, From Peasant to Entrepreneur. The Survival of the Family Economy in Italy, Berg, Oxford, 1993, ix + 174 pp., ISBN 0–85496–309‐X, £29.95.

Daniela Luigia Caglioti, Il guadagno difficile. Commercianti napoletani nella seconda metà dell'Ottocento, Ricerca, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994, 272 pp., ISBN 88–15–04755–7, 36,000 Lire.

Salvatore Casillo and Vincenzo Moretti, False imprese e falsi imprenditori. Dall'industria fantasma allo sviluppo delle aree terremotate nel Mezzogiorno, Koinè, Rome, 1993, 258 pp., 28,000 Lire.

Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, xiv + 320 pp., ISBN 0–521–40285–9, £25 hbk, ISBN 0–521–40848–2, £8.95 pbk.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia. The Business of Private Protection, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., 1993, 335 pp., ISBN 0–674–80741–3, £24.95 hbk.

Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Mercati illegaliemafie. L'economia delcrimine organizzato, II Mulino, Bologna, 1993, 410 pp., ISBN 88–15–04159–1, 50,000 Lire.

Marco Giusti and Alberto Piccinini, Ambra, Nuova ERI, Turin, 1994, 121 pp., ISBN 88–397–0902–9, 18,000 Lire.

Antonio Gramsci, Pre‐Prison Writings, edited by Richard Bellamy, translated by Virginia Cox, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, 350 pp., ISBN 0–521–41143–2 hbk, £40.00, 0–521–42307–4 pbk, £10.95.

Richard M. Locke, Remaking the Italian Economy, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1995, xiii + 232 pp., ISBN 0–8014–2221–3, £23.50.

Luisa Passerini, Mussolini immaginario, Laterza, Bari, 1991, 290 pp., ISBN 88–420–3738–9, 45,000 Lire.

Gian Franco Pompei, Un Ambasciatore in Vaticano. Diario, 1969–1977, a cura di Pietro Scoppola, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994, 604 pp., ISBN 88–15–04317–9, 60,000 Lire.

Lucy Riall, The Italian Risorgimento. State, Society and National Unification, Routledge, London, 1994, 101 pp., ISBN 0–415–05775–2.

Salvatore Vassallo, Il governo di partito in Italia (1943–93), Il Mulino, Bologna, 1994, 324 pp., ISBN 88–15–04589–9, 42,000 Lire.     

THE TIME OF POLITICS,THE POLITICS OF TIME,AND POLITICIZED TIME: AN INTRODUCTION TO CHRONOPOLITICS

Time is so deeply interwoven with all aspects of politics that its centrality to the political is frequently overlooked. For one, politics has its own times and rhythms. Secondly, time can be an object and an instrument of politics. Thirdly, temporal attributes are used not only to differentiate basic political principles but also to legitimize or delegitimize politics. Finally, politics aims at realizing futures in the present or preventing them from materializing. Consequently, the relationship between politics and time encompasses a broad spectrum of phenomena and processes that cry out for historicization. In our introduction to this History and Theory theme issue on chronopolitics, we argue that the concept of chronopolitics makes it possible to do this and, in the process, to move the operation of rethinking historical temporalities from the periphery toward the center of historiographical attention as well as to engage in a dialogue with scholars from a wide range of disciplines. To this end, we propose a broad concept of chronopolitics by discussing existing definitions, by distinguishing between three central dimensions of chronopolitics (the time of politics, the politics of time, and politicized time), and by systematizing possible approaches to studying chronopolitics.     

Rural regeneration strategies for declining regions: trade-off between novelty and practicability

ABSTRACT

Innovation comprises both novelty and practicability. These two dimensions of innovation correlate partly negatively in our analysis of survey data about planning processes in declining rural districts. As argued in the literature, declining regions need innovative concepts beyond traditional counteracting strategies to ‘shrink smart’. Competitions are suggested as feasible-to-initiate innovative local concepts by the state. The German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture invited 39 particularly affected rural districts to participate in such a competition among the best concepts. We address the questions of how the districts dealt with the requirements for novelty and practicability in their concepts and how the rules of competitive bidding procedures influence those concepts. Answering these questions, we conducted a survey and statistically tested hypotheses deduced from governance and innovation theory. Moreover, we analysed the bidding documents. The results show that most districts came up with hardly novel and only partly practicable concepts because the organization of the competition, and local bargaining processes impede innovation. Furthermore, the ministry’s requirements for the competition overburdened local actors with a lack of resources in declining regions. As a policy implication, we propose to integrate external experts in local networks and to accompany declining regions over a longer time instead of short-term competitions and projects.     

Reviews: Australian

Richard Lucy, The Australian Form of Government, Melbourne, Macmillan, 1985, pp.460. $19.95 (paper)

Greg Whitwell, The Treasury Line, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1986, pp.308. $17.95 (paper)

Dean Jaensch, Getting Our Houses in Order: Australia's Parliament, Ringwood, Penguin, 1986, pp.192. $9.95 (paper)

Lionel Murphy, The Rule of Law, edited by Jean and Richard Ely, Amcliffe NSW, Akron Press, 1986, pp.xx,309. $17.95 (paper)

The Whitlam Phenomenon: Fabian Papers, Melbourne, McPhee Gribble/Penguin, 1986, pp.202. $8.95 (paper)

Malcolm Saunders & Ralph Summy, The Australian Peace Movement: A Short History, Canberra, Peace Research Centre (distributor Social Alternatives), 1986, pp.78, $3.75 (paper)

David McKnight (ed.), Moving Left: The Future of Socialism in Australia. Sydney, Pluto Press, 1986, pp.221. $11.95 (paper)

Braham Dabscheck, Arbitrator at Work: Sir William Raymond Kelly and the Regulation of Australian Industrial Relations, Sydney, Allen & Un‐win, 1983, pp.169. $14.95 (paper)

C. D. Rowley, Recovery: the Politics of Aboriginal Reform, Ringwood, Penguin, 1986, pp. 169. $8.95 (paper)

James Walter, The Ministers’ Minders: Personal Advisers in National Government, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp.237. $25.00 (cloth), $12.00 (paper)

Warren Osmond, Frederic Eggleston: An Intellectual in Australian Politics, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1985, pp.357. $29.95 (cloth)

Barry Gustafson, From the Cradle to the Grave: A Biography of Michael Joseph Savage, Auckland, Reed Methuen, 1986, pp.369. $35.00 (cloth)

J. M. Mitchell, International Cultural Relations, London, Allen & Unwin, 1986, pp. xvi, 253.

Leslie Holmes, Politics in the Communist World, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp.401. $32.00 (paper)

Bronislaw Misztal (ed.), Poland After Solidarity: Social Movements versus the State, New Brunswick, Transaction Books, 1985, pp.167. US$20.00 (cloth)

David S. Mason, Public Opinion and Political Change in Poland. 1980–1982, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 275. $74.00 (cloth)

Robert F. Miller and T.H. Rigby (eds), Religion and Politics in Communist States, Canberra, Occasional Paper No. 19, Department of Political Science, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University, 1986, pp.141.

John Rayenhill, Collective Clientelism: The Lome Conventions and North‐South Relations, New York, Columbia University Press, 1985, pp.389. $49.00 (cloth)

E.J. Clay and B.B. Schaffer (eds) Room for Manoeuvre — An Exploration of Public Policy in Agriculture and Rural Development, London, Heinemann, 1984, pp.209. $ 13.50 (paper)

Kenneth Fox, Metropolitan America: Urban Life and Urban Policy in the United States, 1940–1980, London, Macmillan, 1985, pp.274. $19.95 (paper)

K.J. Holsti, The Dividing Discipline: Hegemony and Diversity in International Theory, London, Allen and Unwin, 1985, pp.165. $39.95 (cloth)

Richard Clutterbuck (ed.), The Future of Political Violence, London, Macmillan, 1986, pp. 206. $19.95 (paper)

Christopher Lee, War in Space, London, Hamish Hamilton, 1986, pp.242, £10.95 (cloth); and E.P. Thompson (ed.), Star Wars, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1985, pp.165, $6.95 (paper)

Kevin Boyle and Tom Hadden, Ireland: A Positive Proposal, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1985, pp.127. $7.95 (paper)

Malcolm Slater, Contemporary French Politics, London, Macmillan, 1985, pp.xv + 259. $13.95 (paper)

Olajide Aluko and Timothy M. Shaw (eds), Southern Africa in the 1980s, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1985, pp.327. $45.00 (cloth)

Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons, Mission to South Africa: The Commonwealth Report, London, Penguin Books for the Commonwealth Secretariat, 1986, pp.176. $6.95 (paper)

N.P. Hepworth, The Finance of Local Government, rev. 6th edition, London, Allen & Unwin, 1985, pp.344. $22.95 (paper)

Government, 2nd edition, London, Allen & Unwin, 1986, pp.164. $14.95 (paper)

Anthony Giddens, The Nation‐State and Violence, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1985, pp.399. $58.50 (cloth)

Donald Home, The Public Culture: The Triumph of Industrialism, Sydney, Pluto Press, 1986, pp.264. $12.95 (paper)

Mark Cousins and Athar Hussain, Michel Foucault, London, Macmillan, 1984, pp.278. $18.95 (paper)

J.A. Downie, Jonathan Swift, Political Writer, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985, pp.391. $35.95 (paper)

Robert Young, Personal Autonomy: Beyond Negative and Positive Liberty, London & Sydney, Croom Helm, 1986, pp.123. $44.95 (cloth)

David Muschamp (ed.), Political Thinkers, Melbourne, Macmillan, 1986, pp.259. $29.95 (cloth), $14.95 (paper)

Alistair Mant, Leaders We Deserve, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1985, pp.250. $16.95 (paper)

Richard J. Badham, Theories of Industrial Society, London, Croom Helm, 1986, pp.188. $49.95 (cloth)

Derek Phillips, Toward a Just Social Order, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1986, pp.490. US$50.00 (cloth)

John Burnheim, Is Democracy Possible? The Alternative to Electoral Politics, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1985, pp.205. $39.95 (cloth).

Philip Green, Retrieving Democracy: In Search of Civic Equality, London, Methuen, 1985, pp.278. $53.95 (cloth)     

DEMOGRAPHIC PROXIES FOR THE NEOLITHIC: WITH EMPHASIS ON THE LANGELAND REGION,DENMARK

The article discusses the use of summed probability distribution as a demographic proxy, and highlights several issues with this method, especially during periods of change in the exploitation of the landscape or during social transformation. With a case study from the Langeland region in Denmark an alternative and corrective approach is applied, were number of settlements and size of settlement is included. With this approach a very different development can be described.     

Explaining Advocacy Coalition Change with Policy Feedback

Despite the prominence of exogenous factors in theories of policy change, the precise mechanisms that link such factors to policy change remain elusive: The effects of exogenous factors on the politics underlying policy change are not sufficiently conceptualized and empirically analyzed. To address this gap, we propose to distinguish between truly exogenous factors and policy outcomes to better understand policy change. Specifically, we combine the Advocacy Coalition Framework with policy feedback theory to conceptualize a complete feedback loop among policy, policy outcomes, and subsequent politics. Aiming at theory-building, we use policy feedback mechanisms to explain why advocacy coalitions change over time. Empirically, we conduct a longitudinal single case study on policy-induced technological change in the German energy subsystem, an extreme case of policy outcomes, from 1983 to 2013. First, using discourse network analysis, we identify four patterns of actor movements, explaining coalition decline and growth. Second, using process tracing, we detect four policy feedback mechanisms explaining these four actor movements. With this inductive mixed-methods approach, we build a conceptual framework in which policy outcomes affect subsequent politics through feedback mechanisms. We develop propositions on how coalition change and feedback mechanisms explain four ideal-typical trajectories of policy change.     

A Matter of Foreign Policy: 'Final Solution' and 'Final Victory' in Nazi Germany

The primacy of foreign policy in Nazi Germany has been debatedfor decades. This article seeks not to re-open an old debate,but focuses on the two big aims of Nazi policy: ‘FinalVictory’ and ‘Final Solution’. In order toanalyse their relationship, they are identified as war aims;there follows an examination of both the role of the war inNazi doctrine and Hitler's role in decision-making in general.It can be shown that Hitler's original war plan saw ‘FinalVictory’ as a prerequisite for the ‘Final Solution’,but that from August 1941 the implementation of the ‘FinalSolution’ followed the intention of achieving ‘FinalVictory’ through the extermination of the European Jews.‘Final Victory’ and the ‘Final Solution’thus appear as goals which illuminate the primacy of foreignpolicy in Nazi Germany.