Between 1918 and 1945 there were many changes in European politics - old empires disappeared and new independent political systems emerged. Over the same period most countries faced similar problems - the world economic crisis and the rise of new ideologies and new political movements. But the political effects of these varied, and this study looks at the following key questions: why did democracy survive in some countries but not in others? How were some political institutions able to contain or manage the crises they faced but others collapsed or underwent radical transformation? This book...

This study is aimed at identifying the mechanisms through which women can reach positions of power in public life. The study highlights the processes which may contribute new impulse to the vitality of the industrialized countries, introducing models characterized by flexibility and creativity both in enterprises and politics.

This is the first comprehensive examination of the evolution of executive governance in Israel. The book describes and analyzes the political and bureaucratic structures and processes that led to the predominance of the executive in policymaking and governance. It also analyzes recent political and administrative reforms and their consequences on the Knesset, political parties, governing coalitions and non-elected public authorities.

The Japanese legal system is at a crossroads. The contributors to this book explore the most important features of the adversary process as it works in the Japanese criminal justice system. Topics include the right to remain silent, wire tapping, the role of defence counsel, plea bargaining, the power of prosecutors, juvenile justice and judicial independence. Many of the essays seek comparison with practices in Anglo-American countries.

Has any good come out of the efforts to mediate the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia? The short answer is, 'Yes, but...' Mediation has brought about agreements that halted the fighting in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Yet, the negotiations took too long, and their achievements came too late. Between 1991 and 1995 some two hundred thousand people lost their lives, and close to two million were uprooted from their homes. Saadia Touval examines why the efforts to reach a negotiated solution have not been more effective. He calls attention to two lessons: that collective mediation faces much...

Authoritarianism and Democracy in Europe, 1919-39 offers a comprehensive analysis of the survival or breakdown of democracy in interwar Europe. The contributors explore factors such as the historical, social-structural and political-cultural backgrounds of the policies that European countries attempted to implement to counter the world economic crisis of 1929. The analysis serves as an important backdrop for the assessment of current democratic developments in former communist Europe and highlights some of the problems and risks involved in the transition process.

This book concerns the financing of politics, political parties, candidates and elections in eleven countries. It contains case studies of individual countries, various country-by-country comparisons, and a conceptual framework enabling the reader to understand the context of financial sources and implications of funding sources. All the chapters demonstrate the problems common to democracies seeking to regulate uses and abuses of money in politics in pluralistic societies in which there are numerous openings for political disbursements; many present themes emphasizing forms of public funding...

The unique contribution made by biological anthropology to human welfare lies in the fundamental understanding it can provide of the dynamic interrelationships between physical and social factors. By understanding these patterns, we can interpret the significance of variation in such measures of human well-being in terms of the incidence of disease and mortality rates. Topics covered in this book include reproductive ecology and fertility, nutritional status in relation to health, and the effects of pollution on individual growth. In later chapters, the concepts of physiological adaptation...

In Legislatures in the Policy Process leading specialists in comparative governments reassess the conventional view that legislatures are either marginal to the policy-making process or becoming increasingly so. In the opening chapter, David Olson and Michael Mezey identify three categories of variables--external influences, internal influences and policy attributes--which can affect the policy-making role of legislatures. They specify sixteen hypotheses that describe the relationship among these variables and the policy participation of legislatures. In subsequent chapters, these hypotheses...

Parliamentary Democracy provides a comparative study of the parliamentary regimes since 1789. The book covers the road to parliamentarization of former constitutional monarchies and the creation of parliamentary regimes by exercising the constitution-making power of the people. What has been called democratization in most of the 'transitology' literature was until 1918 mostly only 'parliamentarization'. Democratization of the regimes frequently caused a certain destabilization of the parliamentary regimes by new parties and extremist movement entering the political arena. This is the first...