Personal Loyalties Research Articles

A Sociology of Sacred Texts

AbstractIn 1992 Sheffield Academic Press will publish a selection of the papers given at this Conference, which was held in Newcastle in July 1991. The Conference was organized by the Department of Religious Studies at Newcastle University. The Head of the Department at the time was Professor John Sawyer. The publication will be edited by the new Head of the Department, Jon Davies, and by Isabel Wollaston, currently a British Academy Post Doctoral Fellow at Oxford. Two of our students-Carol Charlton and Michael Burke-worked extra hours to make sure the organisation functioned. Our thanks are due to them and to all participants. This article is in part a summary of the Conference and of those papers which will appear in the book. It is also a contribution in its own right to an understanding of the relationships between the social sciences [sociology and anthropology] and theology. Several cross-cutting social, personal and professional loyalties can, and often do create degrees of distance, dispute and misunderstanding between the two disciplines. As it happens, this Conference managed to find a respectable acreage of common ground; but it is perhaps useful to mention some of the possible areas of controversy, if only because any future conference will probably have to deal with them more directly than we chose to! Readers will of course realise that the book is still being prepared and that the papers discussed here may well be altered or added to. The premise of this article is that all "TEXTS", be they sacred or secular, ancient or modem, canonical or provisional, are the products of human social transactions, a human context, with all that this means for the processes of text-creation and the business of conscious, purposeful, fallible, writing and editing. Texts and contexts change together; and change each other.

De Listopad à Onisimov : Deux visions du responsable stalinien

Alexis Berelowitch, From Listopad to Onisimov. Two visions of Stalinist executives. In this article, it is endeavored to make use of literary works to outline a portrait of a manager of an enterprise at the time of Stalin. The two novels analyzed in this work are Kruzhili- kha of V. Panova (awarded the Stalin prize) and The new assignment (Novoe naznachenie) of Alexander Век, which has been forbidden for a long time in USSR. The two novels describe a manager who is all powerful as far as his subordinates are concerned but deprived of any rights whatsoever when faced with his superiors. These technically competent managers seem to be inspired in the lirst place by devotion and allegiance. So. the picture that is drawn up is less the one of a hierarchy of bureaucratic power than (hat of an archaic system of personal allegiance within which Stalin is the only source of power and legitimacy.

Are External Reasons Impossible?

Previous articleNext article No AccessAre External Reasons Impossible?Rachel CohonRachel Cohon Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Ethics Volume 96, Number 3Apr., 1986 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/292774 Views: 11Total views on this site Citations: 12Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1986 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Caj Strandberg Neo‐humean rationality and two types of principles, Analytic Philosophy 44 (Nov 2022).https://doi.org/10.1111/phib.12280Robert Shaver Moral error theory and hypothetical reasons, Synthese 200, no.44 (Jun 2022).https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03759-ySaleh Afroogh The Mirage of Motivation Reason Internalism, The Journal of Value Inquiry 96 (Jan 2022).https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-021-09871-5Samuel Asarnow Internal Reasons and the Boy Who Cried Wolf, Ethics 130, no.11 (Sep 2019): 32–58.https://doi.org/10.1086/704342Caj Strandberg A Puzzle About Reasons and Rationality, The Journal of Ethics 21, no.11 (Aug 2016): 63–88.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-016-9239-4Steven Arkonovich Reasons, Internal and External, (Feb 2013).https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee251John Brunero McDowell on External Reasons, European Journal of Philosophy 16, no.11 (Apr 2008): 22–42.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0378.2007.00251.xJoshua Gert Brute Rationality, (Sep 2009).https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487088Joshua Gert Two Concepts of Rationality, The Southern Journal of Philosophy 41, no.33 (Sep 2003): 367–398.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-6962.2003.tb00958.xElizabeth A. Oljar Blame and the Metaphysics of Practical Reason, Disputatio 1, no.1313 (Dec 2018): 17–33.https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2002-0009Philip Clark Practical Steps and Reasons for Action, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 27, no.11 (Jan 2020): 17–45.https://doi.org/10.1080/00455091.1997.10717472Stan van Hooft Obligation, Character, and Commitment, Philosophy 63, no.245245 (Jan 2009): 345–362.https://doi.org/10.1017/S003181910004359X

Dividing the Pot of Gold: Social and Symbolic Elements in an Instrumental Negotiation

Just as Durkheim saw crime as a normal element in societal life, so did Gluckman treat opposition and conflict as a normal part of ongoing social order. Instead of interpreting difference of interest as socially destructive, Gluckman argued that means of accommodating these inevitable divisions often actually strengthened social cohesion. He carried this view to point of interpreting tribai society as being in a state of relative political stasis, even when it was repeatedly torn by rebellion (1963:10). It was not difficult to integrate such an approach with structural-functionalism. The political type at each evolutionary stage was interpreted as an internally consistent system. The work of anthropology was seen as study of interdependence of custom and interlocking of relationships (1965:283). For Gluckman, most convincing evidence of those connections could be found in those very events which seemed on surface to show contrary: events of dispute, and of social division, of opposition and confrontation. Gluckman concentrated on the constant process of what he called disturbance and readjustment in tribal society (ibid:282). Moral crises generated social solutions. In tribal society these were magical, in modern society, secular (ibid :Chs. 5, 6; also 1972:1 50). His approach stressed that in both there were solutions. For Gluckman, concept of a disturbed and then restored equilibrium was a central paradigm (1968:219-237). Thus, like obsessively clean individual described by Freud, who through constant washing legitimised a preoccupation with unclean, so Gluckman's surface obsession with legal rules, moral obligation, and forces of order, legitimated an equal, or perhaps even greater, fascination with breach, conflict, contradiction, rebellion, dispute, competition, and like. Since he worked in a period of British social anthropological thought dominated by a vision of organic cohesion and social structural consistency in tribal society, more disorderly themes in which he was most interested could come to surface only in terms of then dominant form. Thus, Gluckman's written schema frequently depend on exploiting an in-built paradox for effect. The ritual representation of rebellion became a statement of loyalty (1963). Dispute became occasion for reinforcing norms (1955). Divided personal loyalties became cross-cutting ties that linked separate and competing groups (1965:110). Illustrated'with lively examples garnered from ethnographies of his contemporaries, these juxtapositions clearly were intended to startle, and binding together of opposites operated as an effective stylistic device. Yet, as Kapferer has pointed out, though Gluckman's ideas extended and expanded our understanding of conflict, his emphasis was on its reflection of structure, not on its transformational properties (Kapferer 1976:78). In analysing conflict, Gluckman usually used modern cases only to highlight theoretical points about tribal societies. The 'modern' was his contrasting case, or his illustration of universality of basic principles. In his own work, he occasionally, but not often, took up events in industrial societies for their own interest, but he encouraged students and others to do so and was always fascinated by field material they brought back. He was, however, not always happy with transactional, choice-making, game theory, exchange theory approach that dominated work of his younger colleagues in late sixties, because he thought it too much preoccupied with explaining behavior in terms of narrow self-interest, and neglected larger cultural and societal contexts in which interests and social positions were defined. Yet he was obviously attracted by many aspects of these and other processual approaches.

The Dilemma of Premature Bureaucratization in the New States of Africa: The Case of Nigeria

The main thesis of this paper is that the apparent failures of bureaucracies in the new and developing states of Africa, far from being concomitants of dismaying negligence and outright incompetence, are, in fact, glaring manifestations of the dilemma of premature bureaucratization. It is impossible to speak of bureaucratization in African states without reference to those gradual, often times painful, but sustained and systematic separations of administrative processes from the Royal Households and personal loyalties of the nineteenth century Western Europe consequent upon tremendous societal changes that were occurring at the time. It was a process of injecting rationality and efficiency into administrative activities (Bendix, 1968: 208). This process was accentuated with the advent of the Scientific Management School of Organizational Theory, which appeared early in the twentieth century. From then onward, the prescriptions for modern administrative organizations have been oriented toward a classical conception of rationality. The scientific management school, led by Frederick W. Taylor (1911), was concerned among other things with the motivations of workers, whereas the administrative management school, led by Luther Gulick and L. Urwick (1937), made organization structure their central theme. Following the examples of these two schools of organizational theory, the literature on organization management has tended to emphasize a high degree of control and efficiency, achieved by means of an elaborate network of impersonal rules and order. Organization men are seen as possessing high instrumental capabilities for goal attainment. In other words, the organization men possess all the relevant information and knowledge as regards causes and effects. This element of perfect knowledge discounts possibilities of errors and uncertainties resulting from the indeterminate environment of the organization. Organizational rules, orders, and structures are both necessary and sufficient conditions for organizational efficiency.

Roger Garfitt on Robin Munro [with Reply

The title of Robin Munro's paperback collection, Shetland, like the World, neatly encapsulates (significantly, the phrase used to be puts in a nut shell ) the relevance of making poetry out of the past and present of a particular place: namely, that in registering the pressures acting upon an area one is able to register, at least in part, the pressures active within the whole economic complex. Seen in this way? regionaUsm is the opposite of provinciaUsm: it is a tactic for selecting from and comprehending the other wise innumerable and incomprehensible interrelations of social and eco nomic forces that compos?, ?r a?e discomposing, the contemporary world; at the same time it is a way of registering a set of personal loyalties that are themselves part of the pressure. If this seems in itself an act of discom position, I would argue that we are at a stage where we probably have to take apart in order to understand, to re-assess and later to re-compose. We are also at a stage where we have a certain duty to record and so to pre serve.

Heirs and Ancestors ed. by John K. Ryan

156 BOOK REVIEWS tence to be taken literally or figuratively. This is an especially crucial question for religious language. When someone I encounter on the street says" Jesus lives!", what am I to make of it? I really have to know what sense he is giving to " live." And, of course, I can ask him. The intentions of the Gospel writers are vastly more difficult to establish. (3) Even given knowledge of the meaning of the sentence, it happens that a particular utterance can be used to perform more than one illocutionary act at a time. Someone who says" Jesus is Lord" can be asserting something about Jesus a;nd announcing his personal allegiance to Christianity and "... commending a particular way of seeing the world. . .." Only the speaker could confirm which acts were being performed. Besides these problems peculiar to illocutionary interpretation, van Buren has a difficulty that arises for any investigator of the use of religious terms: if use is to be the datum, whose use is the correct use? His answer in The Edge8 of Language is that of"... educated Christians in the West in this last third of the twentieth century." (p. 1) In so delineating his user-group he is in obvious danger of " fixing " the result of his enquiry. Perhaps the motive behind the book is exposed in this passage: "... if 'God' is conceived of as a word uttered when one wants desperately to say the most that is possible . . . then the categories of coherence employed to attack the theist simply do not apply...." (p. 133) " God," apparently, is not a concept in the center ground of language ". . , in which concepts can be used coherently and incoherently ... ," (p. 141) and as such is safe from philosophical attack. The project has been one of securing a safe place for Christian discourse. But van Buren does not seem to notice that a " concept " for which there is no contrast between its coherent and incoherent uses is not a concept at all! St. Thomas Fredericton, New Bruwwick Canada WAYNE GRENNAN Heir8 and Ancegtor8. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy. Volume Six. Edited by JoHN K. RYAN. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1973. Pp. Q91. $15.00. These ten essays range from Plotinus through Augustine, to Hume, Sartre, and Frankl. The editor himself contributes a study of Vital de Blois' Latin comedy Gita. Adding to this richness, B. M. Bonansea traces the history of the ontological argument at the 'hands of both proponents and opponents until the present day in a sixty-page survey and critique. This width of vision is offset by sharply focused studies of Hume's notion BOOK REVIEWS 157 of personal identity by John Driscoll and of interiority in Plotinus by John Kelly. The editor does not indicate any unifying theme beyond that suggested in the title of this sixth volume in the series: each generation of thinkers is simultaneously heir and ancestor to other ages. Although he does not suggest a nomenclature for our present generation of humanistic philosophers , if this collection is typical we could describe it as concerned with the valuing self, and this in a sense crossing the lines of ethics and epistemology . In his exploration of the nature of philosophy in Ortega, Felix Alluntis reveals his own concern as much as Ortega's in observing: "... a man philosophizes when he has a living past and in view of a critical situation he has reached." (p. 71) Alluntis claims that Aquinas too admitted this but could not bring himself existentially to the moment of doubt. Perhaps this cohesiveness in the atmosphere of medieval consciousness is the very factor that motivates our present generation of thinkers to look back towards thinkers who do proceed from the underminding moment, some intuition of dissolution in the moment of need. In a sketch of Frankl's stress upon the uniqueness of the human spirit, M. G. Schneider says as much: Frankl's anthropology is not solely the product of his professional work; it is " a personal conviction, deeply felt and unceasingly defended as the most decisive truth of our age." (p. 61) According to Thomas Flynn, Sartre's almost un-noticed...

The Unconscious "Spirit of Party" in the Confederate Congress

The Unconscious "Spirit of Party" in the Confederate Congress Richard E. Beringer Despite the long years which have elapsed since the Civil War, historians remain remarkably uninformed about Confederate politics in general and the Confederate Congress in particular.1 The feeling seems to persist that since the Confederacy was only a wartime phenomenon, its politics were unimportant; and, since the Confederacy lost the war, it is assumed that southern congressmen had little to do and did that poorly. In reality, the politicians in the Confederate Congress had much to do. The legislative branch existed before the new nation was fully established ; it created a constitution, raised and supplied armies, levied taxes, provided a circulating medium of exchange, borrowed money, and encouraged new industries. Even contemporaries were silent on these achievements, usually attributing them to the Executive or else forgetting them altogether,2 but important contributions were nonetheless made toward the creation of a modern national state. This new state lacked a system of political parties, however, and this remarkable absence is one of the most neglected aspects of Confederate politics. There were no party organizations, no caucuses, no party committee system with channels of communication from grass roots to capital and back. Partisan labels were still important, along with the personal loyalties and antagonisms that went with them, but more in reference to what a man had been rather than to what he was. The normal process of political development, including conception of proto-parties, and !Wilfred Buck Yearns, The Confederate Congress (Athens, I960) is the only general study, but a detailed analysis of congressional roll-call behavior may be found in Thomas B. Alexander and Richard E. Beringer, The Anatomy of the Confederate Congress: A Study of the Influences of Member Characteristics on Legishtive Voting Behavior, 1861-1865 (Nashville, 1972). E. Merton Coulter, The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865 (Baton Rouge, 1950), has a good background chapter on Congress, and Eric L. McKitrick's essay, "Party Politics and the Union and Confederate War Efforts," in William Nisbet Chambers and Walter Dean Burnham (eds.), The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development (New York, 1967) is a thought-provoking comparison of the Union and Confederate congresses. This article develops further some of the tentative suggestions offered in Anatomy of the Confederate Congress; figures pertaining to biographical characteristics are compiled from Appendix I. 2 An exception is found in the unpublished Memoirs of W. S. Oldham, Confederate Senator, 1861-1865 (Barker Library, University of Texas), which, while devoted primarily to an account of the last days of the Confederacy and to problems of military strategy, does have a number of interesting observations on Congress. 312 their nurture in the womb of crisis, has therefore been ignored. A baby never having been born, the doctor has too often assumed that none was ever conceived. Most mid-nineteenth-century southerners, indeed many Americans of the time, viewed political parties so negatively that the deviation from previous experience was looked upon with approval. The institution was considered to be a vehicle of personal ambition, and therefore antagonistic to national welfare. Most Confederate congressmen would have agreed with the 1852 evaluation of Ezra C. Seaman, a nineteenthcentury American commentator on law, politics, and economics. "Devotion to the party," Seaman wrote, "is regarded as a substitute for patriotism; the principal object of party leaders seems to be, not to promote the interest and welfare of the nation, but the party . . . the chief inquiry is, what will be popular and strengthen the party, and not, what will benefit the country."3 In this vein, a North Carolinian in 1857 urged his fellow Tarheels "to throw off party ties" in state elections , contending that "the prime cause of all our backwardness and neglect of precious and valuable interests and advantages" was that state politics "have almost uniformly been of a partisan and political character."4 Thus Howell Cobb, in his final speech as President of the Provisional Congress, told the approving delegates that "the spirit of party has never shown itself for an instant in your deliberations," and expressed the hope that the same would be true of future congresses.5 Nevertheless, the party concept did exist...

The Economic Determinants of Political Factionalism: A Case Study of an Indian Rural District

There is some evidence to indicate that the factional behavior of political actors in India today corresponds, on the whole, with rational (or calculable) economic interests which may be their own and/or those of their sponsors.1 It is necessary to stress this in view of the oft-repeated assertions that the Indian political equation can be defined largely in terms of ascriptive or personal loyalties or other emotional factors which do not lend themselves to a logical solution. In a study of Congress factionalism in a western Indian state (Maharashtra), it was noted that the pattern of political rivalry appeared to be paralleled by an economic conflict between private economic interests, based largely in the urban areas of Maharashtra (specifically, the BombayPoona industrial complex), and certain agriculturally based economic groups situated in the rural areas of the state. It is clear that, in a conflict of this kind, there must exist a common object of contention as well as an arena where the rival parties engage each other. The larger political sphere, by far, in each of the several states is rural in nature. Hence, our attention in this instance turns to rural Maharashtra. It may be noted parenthetically that among the more important national leaders of India today is Y. B. Chavan, India's home minister and reportedly a supporter of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the current political conflict which has divided the top-level leadership of the Congress party of India. Therefore, we may be especially concerned to examine the

The Universal Perspective and Moral Development

Every decision, from trivial considerations of where to have lunch to the momentous conclusion that it is right to risk life for the realization of some ideal, is made by a man who has personal interests, group loyalties, and his own preferences and aversions. In many practical decisions, such as choosing an investment portfolio or inviting guests to a party, we expect these particular interests to play a role in guiding the choices. By contrast, we are suspicious of a moral decision if personal preferences or limited loyalties may have played a role in the choice. We tend to discount a man's analysis of the demands of justice if it corresponds too closely to his own interests, and someone who urges us to value precisely those things which will bring him personal profit is apt to receive a short hearing.

Military Forces in the Cultural Revolution

The analytical approaches so far devoted to the contemporary People's Liberation Army (PLA) have been of three general types. First, biographical studies which explain events in terms of the individual military leaders and their inter-relationships. Second, some students of the PLA have devised analytical models of informal power structures. The behaviour of the PLA in the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,” has been interpreted by some as determined by personal loyalties, latent regionalism, and cliques formed around common service in military units prior to 1949. Others have viewed the PLA as split between “professional” commanders and the political cadres in the armed forces – sometimes dubbed a “Red versus expert” analysis. These categories of studies have one thing in common; they treat PLA institutions as being manipulated by informal and extra-legal forces. The third type of study emphasizes organizational and institutional frameworks. This paper falls into the third category. It asks the question: to what extent were the military institutions the subject or object of developments in the Cultural Revolution? It concludes that the organizational structures of the PLA and the missions assigned them heavily influenced the political behaviour of military leaders in the provinces.

The Ecclesiastical Historian in the Service of Clio

Even the most ardent devotee of ecclesiastical history cannot realistically claim for his special interest a major role in Clio's fraternity in this age of high secularization. Yet it may be said, I believe, that the role is growing rather than diminishing for historians generally as they assess the value of scientific and professional works such as those of the Fliche and Martin series, The Christian Centuries edited by Louis J. Rogier, Roger Aubert, and David Knowles, the successive volumes ofConcilium.Theology in The Age of Renewaldevoted to ecclesiastical history, and the projected Oxford History of the Christian Church under the guiding hand of Owen Chadwick. And parenthetically at the outset I should like to make it clear that while most of the materials used in this paper are related to the Roman Catholic Church simply because of my greater familiarity with her story, I use the term ‘Christian Church’ in the broadest possible sense to embrace the Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox communions, as well as that of the Church to which I owe my personal faith and allegiance.

Self-Realization and the Ancestors: An Analysis of Two Japanese Ritual Procedures for Achieving Domestic Harmony

R. P. Dore in his book City Life in Japan suggests that the types of moral dilemmas faced by Japanese have changed as the bonds of the traditional family become weakened because of societal change through a process of individuation. This is a process in which one sets oneself apart from some larger wegroup, such as the family, in order to progressively select personal goals rather than collective ones (1958: 381). Traditionally, conflict of personal loyalties such as that between one's lord and one's family constituted the type of moral dilemma explicitly recognized and expressed in moral instruction. However, according to Dore, the type of moral dilemma faced by Japanese today is likely to involve conflicts between, on the one hand, particularistic loyalties, and on the other, either individual aspirations ... or generalized principles of conduct which are held to be applicable to all (1958: 381). I shall focus on one current type of moral dilemma, namely, that pertaining to conflict between loyalty to one's family and to one's individual aspirations. In the first part of this paper I shall describe by means of a number of examples how this type of dilemma is manifested in particular conflict situations which involve youths. In the second part I shall show how the dilemma and the conflict are resolved through religious belief and ritual which involve the ancestors. My thesis is that for some youths who are caught in this dilemma in which individual aspirations are pitted against family obligations, resolution of the dilemma is possible by equating one's aspirations with one's family obligations. This can be achieved through ritual action without a sense of personal loss, even when individual and family goals

Inukai Tsuyoshi: Some Dilemmas in Party Development in Pre-World War II Japan

THE transference of parties (I refer here to nonrevolutionary parties) from the West to Japan produced mixed results before the Pacific War: spectacular success in one period and miserable failure in another. From their inception as weak and inchoate bodies in the i88o's they grew in the next forty years into veritable machines of power and corruption. Then, in the 1930's, they abruptly declined as effective political organizations and appeared to have lost their identity after nearly half a century of sustained growth. The explanations for this pattern of development are many, and it would be difficult indeed to single out a comprehensive causal factor. But it seems to me that a critical dimension was the growing separation between organized political activity and other fields of action, notably ethical (and aesthetic), which, as Abbott Payson Usher has suggested in his work on mechanical inventions,1 had different systems of events with disparate historical sequences. Nowhere is this phenomenon of separations between fields of action more clearly evident than in the transference of institutions to a soil that had none of the nutritive roots present in the parent field. And it is doubly evident when these institutions, such as a political party, are able to influence the distribution of power. The history of political parties in Japan before the Pacific War might fruitfully be viewed from this general perspective, as I shall attempt to illustrate through the career of Inukai Tsuyoshi (I853-1932), perhaps the most widely known and respected figure in the party movement in the prewar period. Parties in Japan were utterly without historical precedents. And they confronted a separate universe of ethical assumptions: sincerity between men, unselfish dedication to serve all of society, a spiritual consensus based on personal loyalties. Nourished by tradition, these assumptions had become idealized and ingrained in conventional behavior and constituted

Big Business Lobbying in Japan: The Case of Central Bank Reform

The political activities of the business community in Japan have not received the scholarly attention they deserve. Because of the paucity of information and the lack of serious studies, the nature of the political power of Japanese business is poorly understood. The popular notion that big business is influential in politics is quite correct, but just how the influence is exercised, or how much influence can be brought to bear in a particular field of policy, or what conditions limit or augment business influence are far from clear.This paper seeks to single out some of the important conditions affecting the impact of business influence in Japanese government and politics. The case approach is used, and the case is the abortive effort toward central bank reform. Even though this episode concerns only a small portion of the government machinery and the single field of monetary policy, it nevertheless demonstrates the methods commonly employed by business to reach decisions within its own group, the competition with others encountered in persuading the government to act, and the strength of bureaucratic forces resisting change. The simplicity of this case is an advantage in depicting the conflicting groups and the influence they were able to exert. Later studies may reveal more of the pattern of business action on other economic problems and in other areas of government and politics. The bank case showed the great influence of group and personal loyalties as well as the power of one of the government ministries.

Big Business Lobbying in Japan: The Case of Central Bank Reform

The political activities of the business community in Japan have not received the scholarly attention they deserve. Because of the paucity of information and the lack of serious studies, the nature of the political power of Japanese business is poorly understood. The popular notion that big business is influential in politics is quite correct, but just how the influence is exercised, or how much influence can be brought to bear in a particular field of policy, or what conditions limit or augment business influence are far from clear.This paper seeks to single out some of the important conditions affecting the impact of business influence in Japanese government and politics. The case approach is used, and the case is the abortive effort toward central bank reform. Even though this episode concerns only a small portion of the government machinery and the single field of monetary policy, it nevertheless demonstrates the methods commonly employed by business to reach decisions within its own group, the competition with others encountered in persuading the government to act, and the strength of bureaucratic forces resisting change. The simplicity of this case is an advantage in depicting the conflicting groups and the influence they were able to exert. Later studies may reveal more of the pattern of business action on other economic problems and in other areas of government and politics. The bank case showed the great influence of group and personal loyalties as well as the power of one of the government ministries.

Social Studies at Sheffield : Miss Ellinor I. Black

THE University of Sheffield has recently decided to create a new School of Social Studies, which will provide a postgraduate course leading to a diploma in social studies, and other courses leading to lower qualifications. The School will be governed by a board, on which the Science as well as the Arts Faculty will be represented. As a first step to establishing the school, the University has appointed Miss Ellinor I. Black as its director. Miss Black has been associated with the Social Science Department of the University of Liverpool, which she joined in 1924 at the most critical period of its development. Since 1941 she has been a senior lecturer, and for five years during the period of the War she acted as head of the Department. In addition to the reputation she has established in Great Britain, she has also created for herself a somewhat unique position in the international field ; she has since 1936 been closely connected with the Social Welfare Committee of the League of Nations, and the International Committee of Schools of Social Work. In recent months she has renewed her personal contacts with schools of social work in the United States and in Germany. Miss Black is particularly interested in the welfare of the aged. She was a member of the Old Age Survey Committee of the Nuffield Foundation, and she has carried out detailed investigations of the problem in the Merseyside area. Miss Black has made a very deep impression on the education of the professional social worker in Great Britain ; as a teacher she has been able to win both the intellectual and the more personal loyalties of her students, as so many that have passed through the Liverpool School can testify. Sheffield will gain in her one who will devote herself wholeheartedly to the creation of the new institution, which will thus possess a very special human quality.

Dictatorship and the German Constitution: 1933-1937

notion of the state or the fulfilment of his duties, but he pledges personal allegiance and unreserved obedience to the person of the Fiihrer himself. No longer is technical qualification for the office the exclusive condition of appointment, but proof of political reliability is equally and in 96 Compare the gradual development in the following statutes: i., 2., and 3. Gesetz zur Vtberleitung der Rechtspflege auf des Reich of February I6, of December 5, 1934, and of January 24, I935 (RGB. (I934) I, 9I, 1214; id. (I935) I, 68). 97 most notorious among them is the Peoples Court (Volksgerichtshof), established by the act of April 24, 1933 art. III, ? I-5 (RGB. I, 345); see Loewenstein, Law in the Third Reich, 45 Yale L. J. 779, 8o8 (2936); by the act of April 14, I936 (RGB. I, 369), these tribunals of the star chamber type were transformed into ordinary courts in the terms of the Judicature Act. special courts (Sondergerichte) were established by Ordinance of March 21, I933 (RGB. I, 136). 98 See Loewenstein, Law in the Third Reich, 45 Yale L. J. 779, 8o8, n. I04 (I936). Id. at 809. 566 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.10 on Mon, 08 Aug 2016 06:01:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE GERMAN CONSTITUTION: 1933-1937 practice even more important.00?? new Public Officials Act of January 26, I937, declares in its first sentence: The German public official executes the will of the state and of the National Socialist Party. legal pretext of the identity of state and party serves to cover the fact that the once politically neutral civil service has officially surrendered to the patronage of the party to such an extent that at present no appointment, except for minor officials, is possible unless the applicant is a tested member of the party and has undergone special training in the party doctrine. older officials are rapidly being replaced by party members. membership card as technical qualification for office is responsible, according to reports of unbiased observers, for the decay of administrative efficiency in almost all walks of public life. Space again forbids any detailed description of the status of public officials in the Third Reich. It should be noted, however, that persons of non-German blood and those married to a partner of non-German blood are no longer eligible for office.101 Furthermore, vested rights of the officials which have contributed so much both under the Empire and the Republic to the prestige and security of the civil service are no longer recognized. Even the new Public Officials Act of I937 which takes great pains to return at least on paper to the traditional concepts of the civil service contains so many political reservations and pitfalls that security of tenure continues to depend on political conformity. On the other hand the new act benefits from the relentless process of weeding out the politically unreliable public officials during the last years. Since judges and academic teachers are equally subjected to the requirements of civil service it is obvious that political reliability of no category of officials escapes a continuous scrutiny. Thus one of the main objectives in stabilizing the regime is reached in that public officials are made political tools. It should be added that the number of administrative offices and beneficiaries of party and state have inordinately increased under the totalitarian Third Reich.