Fifteen years ago the principle of majority elections became applicable to all phases of public life in Sweden; and along with the movement for democratization there developed the idea of proportional representation. This principle was urged especially by Conservatives, who feared that if elections to Andra Kammaren (the Lower House) should be based upon universal suffrage with the retention of the majority system, the Conservative party would be completely annihilated.

A study of the political events of 1924 in Central and Eastern Europe reveals such a variety of topics lending themselves to extensive treatment that for convenience of treatment, the material has been grouped under the four main heads of (1) financial reconstruction, (2) constitutional, legislative, and administrative developments, (3) parties and politics, and (4) foreign relations.

After experimenting with coalitions and with a minority Labor government, the voters of Great Britain on October 29, in their third general election in two years, returned the Conservative party to power with a large majority over the combined opposition groups. Thus the traditional system of party government was restored. The desire for stability and the fear of fundamental changes in the political and economic order were probably the chief causes of the overwhelming Conservative victory.

In response to requests for information concerning recent developments in political science in Great Britain and France, the following accounts were received from Professor Harold J. Laski, of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and M. Maurice Caudel, of L'École Libre des Sciences Politiques and editor of the Revue des Sciences Politiques:

Great Britain. It will be well-known to American students of political science, especially since Professor Fairlie's very careful survey in a previous number of the Political Science Review, that there is practically no organized study of political science in Great Britain.

Although two general elections were held in Germany during 1924, the political situation remained confused. The election of May resulted in gains for both the extreme right and the extreme left; the one of December registered a reaction against both extremes. However, neither of these contests was sufficiently conclusive to indicate clearly the direction in which the currents of public opinion were moving. The result has been a remarkable series of cabinet crises, the latest of which it took more than a month to settle.

The recent presidential elections in Germany aroused world-wide interest in spite of the strictly limited constitutional powers of the president. For the first time the German voters were privileged to select the chief executive of the state. The question whether they would turn to some one in sympathy with the pre-war regime or would select an adherent of the Weimar republican constitution was one the answer to which might have important bearings on European politics. Moreover, the personalities of the candidates, especially in the second election, were such as to add to the interest which both Germany's friends and foes felt in the outcome.

Both Serbs and Croats have deserved more conciliatory and understanding leadership than they have received since the war. History had treated them very differently, and once they were united in a Jugoslav national state every resource of statesmanship should have been exercised to ease over their psychological and material dissimilarities. Writers have made much of the religious gap between Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs, and of the former's use of the Latin alphabet and the latter's of the Cryillic. The fact remains that they are of the same race, speak the same language, and for generations dreamed of union and worked for it.