THE PROVISIONAL IRA (PIRA) IS THE OFFSPRING OF THE IRISH Republican Army which played such a leading part in the war for Irish independence, 1919–21. Its leaders claim to be the true inheritors of the Irish Republican tradition of struggle against the British, determined to complete the task by expelling the British presence once and for all and thus to ‘liberate’ the whole of Ireland by reunifying north and south and establishing a PIRA socialist state.

IN NOVEMBER 1979 THE GOVERNMENT ABANDONED ITS PROtection of Official Information Bill within a fortnight of its second reading in the Lords. That it should have failed to survive its first encounter outside the departmental world in which it was conceived, came as no surprise to those familiar with what Dick Crossman, in reference to excessive secrecy, once described as the real English disease.

IN ONE OF MY BOOKS I HAVE ARGUED THAT ‘MODERNIZATION’ is a process whereby a society becomes increasingly aware of itself, its identity and aspirations, and seeks to make concrete its awareness in terms of seeking equivalence with other nations. The argument of this essay is that while the process of change in India has general characteristics common to other societies, it can never be the same in totality because the initial conditions are so different.

IN THE SEVEN YEARS SINCE THE FALL OF THE COLONELS' dictatorship in Greece, a new Greek party has established firm political roots. With the accession of Greece to the European Community on 1 January 1981, the new parties have been brought into the Western European political orbit, a development which marks the rehabilitation of a political system ostracized by virtue of its period of dictatorship. Unlike Portugal and Spain, however, which also seek membership of the European Community, the Greek period of dictatorship – lasting seven years post-war – represents much more an historical aberration, for Greece not only has an ancient history which saw the birth of democratic government, it also has enjoyed far more democratic than dictatorial governments in its modern period.

THE MAN WHO LIVES IN A DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, WHO MEETS and wishes to meet only his fellows and peers, does not allow himself to be influenced by others. He searches for his opinions within himself, but he finds them, or at least recognizes them, only if they are shared by his peers, if they are widely believed and are supported by the whole weight of society, His thoughts easily take an abstract cast, while his heart is freely open to pity. He is argumentative, compassionate and gentle. But being argumentative and compassionate does not fill his whole life. What does he do with his time? What principles govern his actions?

GIVEN THE REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ITS SPONTANEOUS rise to prominence, and considering the sweeping range of social and political reforms achieved, it is scarcely surprising that the Roman tribunate has aroused interest among modern political theorists. According to Karl Loewenstein, this was ‘. . . an organ of officially authorized opposition . . .’. Maurice Duverger cites the tribunate as an example of the ‘separate organization’ of opposition, established specifically to criticize and challenge government policy, while not being expected itself to take part in government. To Ghiţa Ionescu and Isabel de Madariaga the tribunate ‘came near to the modern idea of an institutionalized opposition . . .’.