TYPICAL STATEMENTS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CIVIL servants and ministers include the following which I have come across myselc ‘it is the Civil Service mandarins who really run the country’, ‘a strong minister must frequently reject his department's advice to prove he is master’; ‘all decisions by government are based not on the merits of the case but whether they are likely to attract votes at the next election’. The first of these implies that a minister is powerless in the grip of his department and the last that a minister ignores all departmental advice unless it suits his short-term political objectives. The actual relationship between politician and civil servant cannot be explained in such simple and extreme terms. It is also in most cases a relationship which develops and improves as those concerned get used to working together. This is fortunate because if any of the above statements was entirely true, it would be difficult to have much confidence in the future of our particular democratic system.

THE BUSINESS OF LIVING IS INESCAPABLY HAZARDOUS, EVEN IN THE advanced industrial societies, for all that life within them has now become less nasty, brutish and short. In fact, the very process of technological innovation which has made possible the unprecedented affluence of these societies has also led to quite new dangers. In consequence, securing a reasonable balance between the advantages and disadvantages of innovation has now become an important government objective, and a vital one in the case of any technical development whose potentially dysfunctional effects would be catastrophic. It is with the political issues bearing upon the maintenance of this balance that this article is mainly concerned. Its scope is restricted for reasons of logic as well as of convenience to the specifically physical man-made hazards of industrial societies, and the unique psychological problems which these societies are often said to present are therefore not considered.

HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE RECENTLY ACQUIRED A NEW TOPICALITY. THERE are several reasons for this revival of public interest. One is the increasing ability of the ‘dissenters’ within the USSR and in the Soviet bloc to make their voices heard. At the same time black protest movements in Rhodesia and South Africa have achieved greater publicity for their claims. But another, more depressing reason for renewed attention to this to ic is the deterioration in the observation of human rights in a num er of third world countries, the most glaring example of which is Uganda. A third cause is the permanent consultation between East and West on the Helsinki ‘baskets’, notably on the basket dealing with human rights. Finally, a last and most important reason lies in the stancc taken by thc ncw President of the United States, who unlike hi3 predecessor, has explicitly stated that human rights are a matter of universal concern.

THE CONFERENCE ON ‘THE EUROPEAN ALTERNATIVE’ ORGANIZED BY THE Research Committee on European Unification of the International Political Science Association, in collaboration with the European Commission and the Europcan Parliament, was held on 9, 10 and 11 June at the headquarters of the European Commission. It was attended by high oficials of the European Commission and Parliamcnt, the rapporteurs, and by tcams from ten Western universities, the contre-rapporteurs. Indeed, one of the original characteristics of the Conference, and of the work which it produced, was that for the first time the experts of the European Commission and the European Parliament put forward, in a joint research, their views on the problems with which they deal officially. These views have been analysed by experts from European universities working on the same project. The fact that the Conference was able, in each case and in general, to reach harmonious common conclusions is highly significant.

BENEATH THE ACTIVISM OF THE 1960s AND THE SEEMING QUIESCENCE of the 1970s a silent revolution has been occurring which is changing the infrastructure of Western politics in two ways: first, the values of Western publics have been shifting from an almost exclusive emphasis on material and physical security toward greater concern with intangible aspects of life; and secondly, there has been an increase in the political skills of Western publics that enables them to play a more active role in making important political decisions. Both processes tend to broaden the political horizons of these people and have important implications for supranational political integration.

WHEN THE NEW GOVERNMENTS OF UNDERDEVELOPED AREAS supplanted colonial rule, many were optimistic that these governments could operate within a democratic framework. But these nascent governments drifted into authoritarian forms of political life as they faced the exigencies of self-rule. Representative institutions on the Western pattern broke down and were replaced by single-party arrangements headed by charismatic leaders. This form of government, in turn, has tended to give way to bureaucratic and military regimes.

WHEN WESTERNERS FIND INDIANS BAFFLING AND EXASPERATING Indians have an explanation: it is because they bring an ‘either-or’ a proach to people who like to operate in terms of ‘both-and’, they see contraries and inconsistencies where Indians are aware only of complexity and compatibility. Without entering into a discussion of this as a general view, it is tempting to say that it could furnish an explanation of the curiously mixed and paradoxical character of the authoritarian regime which has been emer ing over the past eighteen months from that country's so-called ‘Emergency’. Tempting but less than convincing, for several reasons: the forms of authoritarianism in the world are already amply varied; it remains to be seen how far Mrs Gandhi's mixture is viable; above all, it is a mixture which looks and feels pretty strange to many Indians too.

THE ENERGY POLICY OF A COUNTRY OR OF A GROUP OF COUNTRIES IS simply the optimal use of resources, which are limited although essential to all branches of the economy and to the well-being of the people. The volume of energy consumption at a given time is in direct relation to the degree of industrialization and the increase in the consumption of energy is in direct relation to the increase in overall demand, in other words, of the gross national product.

PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATWE DEMOCRACY IS ABOUT THE relationship of individuals to the state. It commonly invokes mechanistic metaphors about the relationship between these individuals and their governments. Corporatism is about the relationship of certain, apparently relationship indispensable, functional groups to each other in the society which, collectively , they comprise. It is commonly referred to in organic metaphors, specifically it holds that each function is organically related to each other function and that each is irreplaceable. None can be dispensed with and each can do its appointed task provided all others do theirs.

IT IS SIGNIFICANT THAT THE FINAL ACT OF THE EUROPEAN SECURITY Conference, which was designed to promote the expansion of cultural exchanges, did not ay any special attention to the very institutions which are best fitted to achieve that expansion. The centres, which are only one instrument among many, could be an important stage in the development of cultural relations because they are probably the best-known and the most permanent form of cultural exchanges. But such was the lack of consensus among the signatories that no mention was made of them in the final Act. The debates were in fact marked by a violent disagreement between the USSR and France. Both advanced arguments which corresponded more to the ‘national’ cultural tradition than to the ideological cleavage in Europe today. Those who took part in the negotiations were aware of the abstruseness of the texts. They were therefore able to search out in the final Act the compromise which had been agreed on but which had been so watered down that it is difficult to see to what it refers. For example: ‘The participating States express their intention … to envisage other appropriate measures which would permit where necessary by mutual agreement among interested parties the facilitation of access to their respective cultural achievements in particular in the field of books’.

THE OUTCOME OF THE BRITISH GENERAL ELECTIONS OF 1974, WITH the multi-party Parliaments which resulted and the disproportionate relationship of seats to votes in the case of the Liberal Party, has revived interest in the question of electoral reform. The progress made since the Kilbrandon Report on the Constitution towards the creation of Scottish and Welsh Assemblies has emphasized the need to consider whether the existing method of electing parliamentary representatives should be used for these new legislatures, or, indeed, for the Westminster Parliament. Decisions to move towards direct elections for the European Parliament, eventually under some generally uniform system for all the member-states of the Community, have strengthened the case for a close examination of the suitability of retaining the British system of single-member seats won by the relative-majority system of ‘first past the post’.

Group IV, Energy Policy, under the chairmanship of Mr John Pinder, agreed with the parallel conclusions of the reports of Mr de Bauw and Professor Guy de Carmoy on the causes and developments which led to the oil-crisis of 1973. Thc discussion concentrated therefore on the general, past and present, problems faced by a European Energy Policy.

FROM 1967 UNTIL THE REFERENDUM, THE DEBATE ON THE COMMON Market in Britain produced a vast amount of literature devoted to the economic, political and social ramifications of joining. The main economic issues debated were the cost of entry and its effect on Britain's balance of payments, prices and the standard of living. The other problems centred around the tax system, including VAT, the flow of capital, unemployment, technological development, the value of the pound, the Community's agricultural policy, its regional policy, the volume of exports and labour mobility. In the social field the main concern was the standard of the social services, especially the National Health Service. In the political field debate centred around the undemocratic and bureaucratic nature of the EEC decision-making system; Britain's sovereignty, especially as regards the ability of Parliament to pursue independent economic, social and foreign policies; the connections between Britain and the Cornmon wealth, EFTA, the USA, Eastern Europe and developing countries. In addition the Treaty of Rome itself and the ideological, social and political nature of the Communities were debated.

THE ITALIAN ELECTIONS OF 20 JUNE 1976 HAVE BEEN COMPARED TO those of 18 April 1948. Nearly thirty years ago, the Italian electorate, under heavy international pressures, gave 48.5 per cent of the votes and an absolute majority of seats to the DC (Christian Democrats) desisively defeating the Socialist-Communist Popular Front which polled only 31.0 per cent of the votes as compared to their combined percentage of 39.7 per cent only two years earlier (though, in the meantime, the Social Democrats had split from the Socialists and carried with them 7 per cent of the electorate).

IT IS INCREASINGLY COMMON TO FIND ANALYSES OF BRITAIN AS A corporate state, or more circumspectly as developing a tripartite system of economic and industrial policy-making. Unfortunately, such work is often marked by a lack of definitional rigour and an inadequate consideration of relevant empirical material. In view of these limitations in the literature our article has two aims. Initially it examines the relationship between corporatism and tripartism, showing that in many ways tripartism can be viewed as a variation on one strand of corporatist thought, and what is more that it is the strand which appears most relevant to discussions of Britain. Subsequently, against this background, we examine empirical evidence to establish how far Britain can be described as having a tripartite system of economic and industrial policy-making.

FRANCE IS A COUNTRY IN WHICH PAST POLITICAL BATTLES ARE IN the forefront of the minds of those who are engaged in contemporary conflicts. The March 1977 elections in the 36,383 communes of metropolitan France could evoke memories of 1877 and 1947. The thirtieth anniversary of the Gaullist landslide of 1947 was directly concerned with local elections as such, while 1877 recalled the defeat of President MacMahon's attempt to impose his choice of government a century ago, which finally settled the struggle between Left and Right over the regime of the Third Republic. Anticipation that the regime established by General de Gaulle would be put to the searching test of a clash between the President and a Left-wing Assembly majority converted in some people's minds the March 1977 local clections into a prologue to this decisive national confrontation.

HISTORICALLY AND CONCEPTUALLY CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT IS presented as the antithesis of absolute sovereignty and the prophylactic to tyrannical oppression. The paradigm form for absolute sovereignty is rule by one man and, since everything turns on the character of that man, such rule is inherently liable to collapse through incapacity, or to degenerate into tyranny. Tyranny is an ill against which necessarily there can be no protection under conditions of absolute sovereignty. Constitutional government may, therefore, be conceived as an attempt to provide built-in safeguards to prevent, or at least reduce the chances of, absolute sovereignty assuming the corrupt and perverted form of tyranny. Such safeguards inevitably restrict the absolute nature of sovereign rule.

WESTERN EUROPEAN SOCIALISTS HAVE LONG BEEN PLAGUED BY THE existence of factions and cleavages within their party ranks. But it is quite consciously that Socialists defend internal party democracy as the best guardian against the abuses of arbitrary decision-making and bureaucratic fossilization. This aspect of party life continues to divide the Left movement into Socialist and Communist camps. The Socialists, however, believe that the means employed very much determine the nature of the end; that ‘if you have a revolution by a Bolshevik Party, you will end up with a Bolshevik society’. A Socialist Party therefore is not expected to bc homogeneous, but pluralistic - like the future Socialist society it seeks.

NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT POLICIES IN GENERAL HAVE BEEN ESPECIALLY intensively studied from a comparative point of view in the last decade during which unemployment has again become an object of universal concern. But, at least to our knowledge, these studies have been focused more on the economic and social asects of the problems of employment/unemployment, and less on the political aspects, or what we call the politics of employment policies, i.e. how are these policies made, by what kind of institutions and especially through what kind of political processes?

THE CHANGE OF REGIME IN LISBON IN 1974 STIMULATED THE imagination of the far Left from Madrid to Santiago. For a brief period Lisbon was a political laboratory, attracting militants from every continent to test and analyse for future home consumption. What aroused this interest — unprecedented for a European upheaval since the Paris events of May 1968 — was a feeling that here was a rare example of history being made, not just by governments, but by the people themselves. How justified was this feeling, and how docs the Portuguese Revolution look now that it is, apparently, all over?