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On the basis of interviews with French civil servants the article investigates the controversial question of whether the extensive administrative rule making in the Fourth Republic has limited pressure group influence or whether the direct impact of the groups has impinged on administrative autonomy. It is found that the group-bureaucracy relationship differs from agency to agency, but also that certain administrative patterns quite generally increase the access of organized interests to authoritative decision making. The search for developing standards by which to determine "the public interest" has been affected by the postwar civil service reforms and by the progressive amalgamation of the public and the private sector of the economy. The paper concludes with an examination of the corporatist and technocratic implications of certain new concepts of administrative responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with conflicts in contemporary Yugoslav society. The reader who studies the methodologically rather heterogeneous and detailed papers on conflicts in Yugoslav society ought to have in mind the basic frame of reference that explains the whole. The author is referring to the fact that Yugoslav was constituted as the result of a revolutionary movement. Although that happened in 1940s, the manner of her origin still essentially determined the character of her existence. The dominant problem that extends throughout this entire period is how to institutionalize the revolutionary movement in such a way that it does not lose its authentic character. With regard to the historical experience of revolutionary societies this question is perhaps absurd, and the aspirations expressed in a positive response appear, perhaps, utopian. The institutionalization of revolutionary movements has usually ended in terror or in the creation of all-powerful systems that liquidated the very carriers of the revolutionary movements. The aspirations to institutionalize and conserve the authentic revolutionary movement are manifested in the constant effort to avoid terror and counterrevolution, or as Yugoslav activists usually say since 1948, to avoid Stalinism and petty bourgeois elements. Yugoslav social practice oscillates between these boundary conditions: in certain phases of the development cycle it approaches very closely liberal, and in other phases Stalinist, social characteristics.

The question of the power of pacifist behavior to produce cooperative responses in conflict situations has recently been raised by several researchers and has been the subject of a number of comments. The researches that have been reported to date are best described as exploratory in nature. The majority of the investigations have been directed toward the development of a standardized experimental situation and the empirical exploration of a number of possible relationships. Although the experiments demonstrate that it is possible to investigate pacifist behavior under controlled laboratory conditions and that certain naive expectations about the effects of pacifist strategies are incorrect, their results are of only limited value in the analysis of pacifist behavior as a strategy in conflict situations. There are two reasons for this. The first is that no attempt has been made to generate a theoretical analysis of the strategy which leads to predictions that may be empirically investigated. Lacking such an analysis, the experiments cannot be evaluated as a set of investigations which all bear on a theory and hence each result must be considered independently, with the consequence that each is of diminished value. The second reason is that it happens to be the case that the particular line of research that is currently being pursued, focuses on those aspects of the pacifist strategy which are of relatively little importance to the question of the strategy's power.

The questions discussed in this paper are the following: how many activists are there and how are they organized? What are their distinctive values and ideologies? What are the main patterns of recruitment at the present time and why? What impact do young activists have on the policies and prospects of the parties they support? For answers to these questions, the information is drawn as provided by the parties and other political organizations themselves and on the results of the pilot inquiry of a large study of political activists now in progress. Three preliminary points may be noted. First, that the energies of young activists are concentrated in and around the three parliamentary parties. There is no important political action by the young outside this framework. Young people have participated in two major efforts to escape from or change the existing structure of political organization in the last decade-the New Left and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament-both have failed. Secondly, the parties have made serious efforts to appeal to the young only in periods of electoral adversity-the Liberals before 1905 and since 1955, the Conservatives after 1906 and again after 1946, the Labour Party in the 1930s and since 1959. One might infer from this that there is no substantial rapport between any of the parties and youth perceived as a distinct generation with peculiar values and interests. Thirdly, at the time of writing youth is withdrawing from political activity. The membership of each of the party youth organizations is declining.

This paper develops the concept of a counter-culture--a semi-organized culture which examines and challenges many political and non-political features of the dominant culture. According to survey data gathered by both UCLA and Berkeley, "membership" in the counter-culture may partly explain student activism; and the differential growth of the counter-cultures at UCLA and Berkeley may partly explain the differential growth of activism at the two campuses. This paper briefly discusses the limitations of a counter-culture explanation of activism and the implications of such an explanation for methodology. It is suggested that interaction patterns of activists and non-activists should be examined and that other methodological techniques of social movement theory should be applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents comments of Murray L. Wax on Roger Kahn and William J. Bowers' research paper "The Social Context of the Rank-and-File Student Activist: A Test of Four Hypotheses." Wax doubts whether one can learn anything about real activists by the kind of survey technique employed by Kahn and Bowers, and insofar as Kahn and Bowers are implying that they have performed such "a test of four hypotheses" they are misleading not only the readership of the journal Sociology of Education, but more importantly those who will read elsewhere abstracts or abbreviated versions of their essay. Responding to Wax's comments, Kahn and Bower states that the basic problem with Wax's critique is that it is doctrinaire and superficial. The fact is, of course, that a great deal was learnt about activists through the kind of survey technique employed. The consistent findings being referred to in the introduction of the research paper make this evident. Bowers and Kahn opined that the contributors and readers alike require and deserve more serious, thoughtful criticism and not polemics delivered in the guise of criticism.

The article focuses on activities of grass roots political activists in the U.S. During this study, the nature of political activity variable was operationalized by asking each respondent to indicate whether or not further political ambition, being close to influential people, or making business contacts was an important reason why the respondent ran for the office of precinct committee-man. Then each respondent was asked which activities he performed as committeeman were most important. The data utilized in this paper were collected over a two-year period in five communities in three states. The interview schedule concentrated upon variables used in, but not tied together by, existing studies of characteristics relevant to the recruitment and activities of precinct committeemen. In general, findings indicated that precinct committeemen tend to be motivated to run for office not because they are self-stimulated but because they are pushed across an activist threshold, to exhibit low rather than high levels of political ambition, to orient themselves more to the campaign than to the organization, and to engage more often in party-aiding than in personal-aiding activities. These findings are consistent with the literature on the recruitment and activities of grass roots political activists.

The article focuses on the emergence of "amateur" organizations in certain areas. The emphasis within such organizations upon ideological and other purposive incentives as the relevant stimuli for party work was interpreted as foreshadowing changes in party goals and strategy. Several analyses concluded, however, that activism based upon purposive or impersonal incentives were somewhat evanescent. The maintenance of amateur orientations might depend, however, upon the congruence of motivational orientations between leaders and lower-level activists. The impact of the amateur type of party organization depends not only upon its ability to sustain itself but also upon its relevance for areas of growing political importance, particularly the suburbs. This paper examines Democratic and Republican party activists in DeKaib County, Georgia. During the summer of 1970, personal interviews were conducted among leaders and officials of the Democratic and Republican county party organizations in DeKaib County, Georgia.

A major weakness in many treatments of the models, historical or contemporary, which delineate the preferred goals of interethnic and interracial adjustment in America has been the omission of separatist models. This paper focuses on certain extreme separatist models proposed in regard to black-white adjustment, first by examining the historical background, then by re-analyzing recent survey data to assess the extent to which rank-and-file white and black Americans support separatist solutions. Demographic and attitudinal correlates of separatism are also systematically examined. In the light of the surprisingly strong white support for separatism found in the survey data, the conclusion raises some questions about Parsons' view of the ongoing inclusion process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the emotional rebellion of youth for rational transformation of human society. He argues that youth movements are addressed against war, which is the biggest risk to world peace. Youth are strongly attached to combat militarism and does not demonstrate concern in partitioning of the world into technologically developed and underdeveloped countries. He suggests that education and new leadership should help improve the situation by replacing the traditional social attitudes.

The article explains why businessmen in the United States must become active in politics. The author outlines various talents that businessmen can contribute to the government and reasons behind the relationship between government and business enterprises. An overview of the importance of political action and ways businessmen can be active in politics is provided. A discussion is presented about incentives and methods used by corporations in order to encourage and promote political activity among businessmen.

The article presents a definition of imperialism. The investment in education was part of loosely organized political and economic activism that ultimately became the basis for the mandates over Syria and Greater Lebanon after the First World War. An analysis of this particular style of imperialism must investigate the tensions inherent in the alliance of French diplomacy with Catholic missionary enterprise. Sporadic Uniate resistance to the influence of the Rome-based western Catholics sharpened the awareness among the Catholic missions of the threatening alternatives being posed by their western rivals.

This study reports on long-range consequences of student political activism. Three groups were selected: (1) former civil rights activists, (2) student government members, and (3) apolitical undergraduates. It was hypothesized that variation in political activism would be linked with differing occupations and political orientations. Former civil rights activists are heavily concentrated in the knowledge and human service occupations and are politically radical to liberal in their attitudes and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A political activist needs to pick up early waning signals that "something is happening" which might require his attention. The "something" could be an emergent danger or opportunity. An ideal-typical waning system is postulated to account for what is believed to be the extraordinary infrequency of activists being caught off guard under most "routine" conditions. Such a system would ideally meet four criteria: rapidity, comprehensiveness, validity, and selectivity. The postulated system rests on what Anthony Downs has called "subformal" communications channels among individuals and groups interrelated by principles of specialization and the division of labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the denouncement of political activists Sinn Feiners and all their works by leader of the Parliamentary Party John Dillon in Ireland. Dillon resents the statement attributed to him in some of the English papers. According to Dillon, the Sinn Fein policy is calculated to rob Ireland of the sympathy of American and of all democratic people throughout the world.

Presents an analysis of the impact of mass media on the political attitudes and behavior of the members of Birch Society and the Americans for Democratic Action, both political activists. Examination of the magazine subscription pattern of members; Rate of magazine subscription; Categories of magazines.

This article focuses on a study on the change in political behavior of American college students. Bennington study continues as the benchmark for the study of political socialization in college. The impact of the small liberal political environment upon students from wealthy and politically conservative families was noted by Newcomb. Newcomb also noted student types who did not perceive politics as an important means of socialization. They were seemingly unaware of the political norms of the groups around them. For them, politics was seen as neither relevant nor meaningful. Students with firmly held beliefs, on the other hand, resisted group influences, and in some cases were characterized by perception biases that operated to distort the values of the group. In this sense, political socialization was dysfunctional. In some cases, the group adjusted to the individual because of his value to the organization at that particular time. There was significant and progressive change from conservatism to liberalism as the student proceeded through college.

This article focuses on a paradox in the findings of public opinion research that those individuals who shift their political position from one election to another frequently have less information about the political situation and the issues than persons whose attitudes and positions remain relatively unchanged. The low level of public information about politics has been documented with monotony ever since sample survey techniques developed several decades ago. While most of the major investigations of voting behavior have converged on this finding in one vocabulary or another, the evidence mustered in support has not been striking. Of course any data would be disillusioning if one imagines that an electorate is definitively split into two portions, one made up of fairly informed voters who never shift parties, and the other of uninformed voters who account for any electoral change. Belief in the broad hypothesis has been stronger than actual evidence might warrant in part because of obvious measurement problems, all of which act in the direction of weakening positive results.

This article uses a transactional model to trace the transforming structure of a clergy counseling service, interpreted as a social movement. Social movement analysis, predicated on assumptions of discontinuity between a movement and its environment, neglects crucial features of internal organization as this reflects on-going network alliances. The deprivation model is, at present, too global and unspecified to be a very useful analytical tool. What is required is delineating the economic and political context of the assumed deprivation by attention to effective demand, public images of equity, and use and distribution of available supply of goods and services.

The article discusses various issues related to the local level political activism. One of the more unfortunate outcomes of recent discussions of political activism by academicians is that they have helped to revive and perpetuate the false dichotomies of "thought and action" and "theory and practice." Too often rancorous debates have been concluded with conciliatory statements to the effect that thought, too, is a form of action, or that action to be effective, must be informed by theory. Authors have sketched some observations about Radical Action For People (RAP), not because its accomplishments are especially worthy of general notice, or its organization exemplary, but rather to indicate some aspects of an organization within which radical action by academically based social scientists is facilitated and sustained. These include: All members of the group share a perspective, which is politically radical, and praxis is explicitly tied into that perspective. RAP works with, rather than for, the community. Various constituencies are linked to the group through the institutional and associational affiliations of RAP members. RAP is occupationally heterogeneous. Risk-taking and the obligation to provide collective support is an integral part of its program.

This article focuses on the socio-economic status and political socialization patterns of families of student activists. Two themes appear to dominate the literature on student activism. First of all, the majority of studies were conducted between 1964 and 1966, a time when student protest was beginning and was confined to a few "elite" universities. Secondly, these studies are remarkably consistent in their findings. It is only recently that data have become available on activists at "non-elite" universities. Although the results of these studies appear to contradict much of the earlier research, the paucity of research in this area renders the conclusions rather tenuous. The purpose of the study was to determine whether student activists in the given sample are recruited from liberal, affluent family backgrounds, as earlier studies have indicated, or, if the growth of activism has effectively eliminated the class base found earlier. The study was conducted on the campus of Central Michigan University during the fall semester of 1970. The sampling procedure consisted of both random and non-random samples, comprising 212 students. The data were gathered through the use of written questionnaires.

The article analyzes the role of sociologist as an activist. It is opined that the sociologist has always been an activist as a member of the society and his work involves not only academic activity but also to confront the problems of the society. It is believed that most people of the United States are unaware of the extent of social injustice that pervades this society. When injustice does become apparent, most people are unprepared to interpret the causes of such injustice as social. When social interpretations are made, most people cast them in a national-revolutionary framework. Out of ignorance of social facts and social theory, and perhaps also out of a growing sense of personal alienation and fear, people stand strongly opposed to direct action and civility disobedient protests in race relations, in the agitation for a meaningful education on the campus. Another void that confronts the sociologist who eschews an active involvement and commitment to his subject matter. It is feared that he may soon be confined to the laboratory, the paid volunteer, vital statistics, and computer simulation.

The article discusses the subject of activism. It is opined that activism is not an either-or quality; it comes in varying degrees and it may be found on all sides of the political spectrum, left, right, and center. Activism, it is opined, begins in the classroom. Faculty members of just about every discipline have made use of the classroom to discuss controversial matters. Research has reported that well over 90 percent of faculty members believe that classes should be open to free discussion on controversial matters. For the social scientists, it is almost impossible to avoid such discussion, but such discussion is hardly limited to them. It is believed that the boundaries of the university cannot mark the limits of activism. Practically speaking, our role as activists may be extended beyond the classroom in several ways: as consultants, as evaluators of ongoing programs, by carrying out applied research, by doing research with policy implications, by petition signing, by joining or helping to form pressure groups, and by becoming policy makers at local, state, and national levels.

The article discusses the role of sociologists as a member of the society. It is opined that sociologists do not have a special normative or political status which awards them the right to act as if they were philosopher-kings. However, the sociologist does have unusual knowledge of society and a special critical competence, and hence when acting as a citizen--he should use his professional expertise to enrich his citizen role. Thus, rather than allowing his technocratic orientation to sear his activism, he should nourish his activism with his professional capacities. Further, evaluating the role of sociologist in the society, it is opined that a sociologist can compare various social structures in terms of the extent to which they are responsive to their members and seek to specify the factors which prevent them from being more responsive than they are and the conditions under which theft responsiveness may be increased. He, thus, does not evaluates a social structure in terms of his own preferences but rather in terms of those of its members.

This article presents information regarding judicial role in a non-judicial setting. Attitudinal differentiation may be a consequence of the operation of a variety of exogenous factors, among them, age, partisanship, political participation, experience within the role, social background, or economic status. It is granted that all of these factors may lead to the development of differential characteristics independent of the role that the respondent occupies. However, granting these influences, it is still reasonable to expect some attitudinal difference between judges and other lawyers. Our theoretical position is based in particular on factors of adult social learning and, to a lesser extent, on a consideration of earlier socialization. Long experience in an occupational role habituates the position incumbent to characteristic values. To the extent that these values are firmly learned, they condition subsequent behavior. In this context it can be interpreted as behavior in response to attitude question stimulus. On this view of the sources attitudinal responses, it is required to make some rather strong assumptions concerning the quality of experience in the roles of judge, attorney, and our category of other delegates.

The three articles in this section concern factors and types of involvement in that uniquely intense American communication experience known as a political campaign. Some propositions have been developed about the sense of civic responsibility and efficacy (and their correlates), and about the social situation of minorities, political participation, and leadership. Note that these articles reach divergent (though not irreconcilable) conclusions about the conditions of party identification. Widespread interest has been focused on the political impact of the new medium of television. Kurt Lang and Gladys Engel Lang cast doubt on the popular conception of a television personality who comes across to the viewer by sheer personal qualities. They note the impact of context and expectations on what the audience takes from the picture, a conclusion touching closely on points made in the other articles, which also stress the impact of expectations on reactions to messages received. It has been tried to distinguish among a number of ways in which the appearance of a public figure may be experienced over television. Beyond this, the process by which and the extent to which such imagery is translated into politically meaningful activity needs to be investigated.

American communists were active at different times on each side of the long controversy over foreign policy, operating for the most part through various front organizations. In spite of great confusion of numbers, a pattern of operation common to almost all of these pressure groups appeared. The amazing extent of the pressure group activity has been proof that the foreign policy is democratically controlled. Out of the profusion of active groups in the U.S., a distinction between non-interventionist and interventionist obviously can be made. It may be less apparent that among these non-interventionists a division separated those motivated by pacifism from the narrow isolationists. When the war in Europe entered its second year, leadership in the struggle for non-intervention passed to newly formed isolationist groups. Opposing these pacifists and isolationists stood the Committee to Defend America and the Fight for Freedom Committee which continued to maintain separate national organizations.

This article discusses factors that determine the Congressional voting behavior on the repeal of the embargo provisions of the Neutrality Act in the U.S. Voting behavior typically represents only the end product in an involved process which throughout is exposed to a variety of influences. The importance of a continuing assessment of the influences which determine a legislator's votes should not be underestimated. Such factors constitute the real dynamics of the political process and may be viewed profitably in terms of the effects they produce as well as in the circumstances attending their inception. This is the problem which is investigated here. The article talks about the special session of September 1939. A glimpse is given over the field of both voting behavior and the mail. One is driven to the conclusion that basically the mail was a sincere and accurate picture of how the letter-writing electorate felt about the lifting of the embargo. Those who wrote did not want the embargo lifted, basically because they thought it would lead to war, but likewise because they were not certain that all the blame lay on one side, and because they feared the effects, economic, political and moral, of a war boom. It is true that they did not seem to grasp that there was no necessary sequential order in the two phenomena of lifting the embargo and war. As usual, national origins apparently played some part in determining their attitudes. By and large the more wealthy and educated classes were relatively more favorably disposed toward lifting the embargo, but even within these classes, there were numbered more supporters of retention than repeal.

The article focuses on the implications of voter behavior analysis for revolutionary activities. The author says that voter behavior analysis, as developed by political scientists, can be applied in only slightly modified form to political activity other than voting--specifically to a revolutionary activity. Indeed, a revolutionary activity is subject to analysis by the tools of methodological individualism, as contrasted with the metaphysical point of view that revolutionary activity is a phenomenon of the social consciousness of a society rather than resting in the scales of preferences of individuals.

Some of the most solidly researched and validated findings in the social sciences relate to the differential participation of men and women in political activities of all kinds from voting and membership of parties, to interest in politics and political attitudes. Women have been found to vote less than men, to participate in political parties less than men, to know less about politics than men, to have less interest in politics than men and to be more conservative than men. A number of explanations of these findings have been suggested in this article. One type of explanation stresses the structural restraints militating against women's participation; the restraints, including the tasks of child-rearing and maintaining a home, are held to account for the lower political participation and knowledge since women, contrasted with men, are prevented from linking up with the wider network of social contacts which helps to maintain male political involvement. This explanation is obviously a powerful one and does account for the well-documented finding that women's rate of participation increases when such burdens cease and that mothers with young children are consistently less likely to vote than are fathers with young children across all levels of education within both the 21-34 and 35-54 age groups.

The article deals with the emergence and activities of a U.S. political phenomenon, the radical right. The conservative elements in U.S. society can be divided into two groups, the moderate conservatives and the radical right. These groups may be differentiated in terms of their attitudes towards the political era of New Dealism. The radical right refuses to accept the past, is radical in the sense that it rejects the status quo. It wants to turn the clock back all the way; it refuses to accept what has happened as something inevitable, or irreversible. Most, though not all the sections of the radical right are opposed to: the labor movement, preferring to see trade unions eliminated; the income tax, the movement for the repeal of the sixteenth amendment; the welfare state and government planning, it would like a return of limited government; the radical right sees the World War II as an avoidable mistake, and prefers in retrospect a policy of Russia and Germany fighting it out alone. The radical right views foreign policy from the recognition of Russia to Potsdam as appeasement, treachery and treason. It is opposed to membership in the United Nations, and to entangling foreign commitments. It tends to be Asia-oriented, rather than Europe-oriented; it is suspicious of Great Britain as a Machiavellian power which has manipulated people into wars, and refuses to back people in time of need.

Political activism among Christian clergymen is regarded as deviant in that it violates the expectations of significant others, (viz., the church laity), is defined as deviant by such others, and is negatively sanctioned by them. Nevertheless, the role and training of the clergy provide come supports for those clerics who are politically active. Some theological traditions facilitate the use of techniques of neutralization which make entry into the deviant role of political activist a distinct possibility for any Christian clergyman. Varioux structural arrangements shield the politically active clergyman from negative sanctions and thereby increase the likelihood of such deviance. Results from several empirical studies of political activism among Christian clergymen are compatible with the general theoretical approach presented in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the developments of political activism in the National Council of Churches (NCC) in the U.S. It attempts to analyze the hypothesis that the emergence in the 1960's of a highly self-conscious sense of NCC involvement in the nation's domestic and foreign policy struggles was a function of declining main-line Protestant prestige, and a resulting inability to gain results using the former nonpolitical strategy.

The article discusses the Pan-Africanism and African governments in 1963. In this year, activists in Africa adopted Pan-Africanism as a rallying cry for independence from colonial rule. Some African Pan-Africanists sought to unite the continent as one independent nation. However, on the scope and meaning of Pan-Africanism, including such matters as leadership, political orientation, and national as opposed to regional interests, they are widely, often bitterly, divided.

For a sample of 486 Protestant pasters, the independent variables generally showed a necessary but not sufficient condition for anti-Vietnam war activism. Almost all anti-Vietnam war activists were: 1) non-authoritarian, 2) politically efficacious, 3) self-defined theologically liberal, 4) self-defined politically liberal and 5) civil rights activists. However, in multivariate analysis, most of the direct effects of the regression of anti-Vietnam war activism was accounted for by civil rights activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reflects on the author's view regarding the scientific manpower who are engaged in defense work. The author pointed that he is not concerned with scientists who feel that the social system in Russia is better than the U.S., but that he is concerned with pacifists, a group which is diversified in many other respects that the dignity of every human being is of supreme importance.