Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought. By A. James Gregor. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. 288p. $35.00.

A. James Gregor is the leading authority on Italian fascist ideology in the English language. Mussolini's Intellectuals is the conclusion of 40 years of scholarship on fascist intellectuals and the ideology they produced. While specialists will find little if anything new in this volume, the uninitiated will find a cogent presentation of the author's long-standing claim: that Italian fascism was not simply the violent, irrational, anti-intellectual phenomenon so often misrepresented in the historical and social scientific literature but, rather, a movement with a serious ideological core that responded to the historical failings of the liberal state, as well as to the conjunctural problems of the interwar period. The book's major strength derives from a firm grasp of the intellectual origins of fascism, particularly the unredeemed promise of the Risorgimento to develop a morally regenerated and unified nation.

Constitutional Failure: Carl Schmitt in Weimar. By Ellen Kennedy. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. 272p. $79.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.

Carl Schmitt's 1933 involvement with national socialism constitutes a frequent interpretative entry point into his work. From there, his pre-Weimar as well as his post–World War II writings become logically implicated with his infamous role as the Third Reich's “Crown Jurist.” It is the merit of Ellen Kennedy to break away from this dominant, often redundant, trend to offer an original reading of Schmitt's constitutional and political theory. Instead of debating whether his endorsement of Nazism was a matter of principle, Kennedy boldly shifts direction to address broader, more interesting theoretical issues prompted by his writings. Her main goal is to address the relevance of Schmitt's Weimar-era work for contemporary political and constitutional problems.

The Idea of Democracy in the Modern Era. By Ralph Ketcham. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. 312p. $35.00.

Democracy today suffers from hermeneutic exhaustion in contemporary political contexts. It is regularly proclaimed as both a principle of war and a principle of peace, as a necessary component of free market capitalism and the name of resistance to economic globalization, as that which legitimates the power of the nation-state and that which perpetually threatens to undermine that power. As such, democracy risks becoming one of those worn-out coins that Friedrich Nietzsche invokes, “drained of sensuous force” (Philosophy and Truth, 1979, 84).

Knowledge and Social Construction. By Andrew M. Koch. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005. 174p. $65.00.

Epistemology—even more than mathematics—is arguably the paradigmatic science of modernity. Critics of modernity, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Derrida, and Martin Heidegger, have all in one way or another argued against the modern worry over knowing and have recommended instead “doing.” In light of this, Andrew M. Koch's Knowledge and Social Construction is intriguing. Its inspiration draws from many of modernity's prominent critics. Yet, curiously, as the book's title makes clear, its argument is an epistemological one.

On Populist Reason. By Ernesto Laclau. New York: Verso, 2005. 224p. $26.00 cloth, $20.00 paper.

Populism and the Mirror of Democracy. Edited by Francisco Panizza. New York: Verso, 2005. 288p. $75.00 cloth, $25.00 paper.

In the wake of Thomas Frank's bestselling book What's the Matter With Kansas (2004), scholars and citizens are turning to the concept of populism as a way to make sense of the strength and popularity of the far Right in the United States. In order to unravel the puzzle of why working-class voters would enthusiastically support a political party that is committed to cutting taxes for the wealthy, dismantling popular social programs, and subsidizing corporate welfare, scholars need to jettison the old Marxist-inspired paradigm that assumes that political identities are products of economic interests. At least that is one of the lessons of Ernesto Laclau's fascinating book.

Torture: A Collection. Edited by Sanford Levinson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 328p. $29.95.

Seventeen short essays, together with a very detailed Israeli Supreme Court judgment (1999), provide useful discussions of a timely and important subject. Considerable disagreement occurs, and sometimes participants address each other in strong language. Thus, when Ariel Dorfman pleads for “humanity to say no to torture under any circumstance” (p. 17), Judge Richard Posner responds that the statement “is not only overwrought in tone but irresponsible in content” (p. 295).

John Witherspoon and the Founding of the American Republic. By Jeffry H. Morrison. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005. 240p.

In his The Origins and Progress of the American Revolution, loyalist Peter Oliver spoke of the New England clergy as the “black regiment” of the Revolution who, “tinctured with republicanism,” supported the war for independence. John Witherspoon was a New Jersey Presbyterian, but he might well fit Oliver's description. He brought Princeton University to the side of the Revolution, mentored the first generation of the new regime's leadership, served in the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, and was an active supporter of the Constitution. Yet while Witherspoon was highly praised by his contemporaries, who predicted that he would be honored by later generations of Americans, he instead became a neglected figure with few memorials erected in his name. Somehow, despite credentials that compared favorably to Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton, fame deserted him. Jeffry H. Morrison's engaging and enthusiastic study of John Witherspoon attempts to redeem him as a “forgotten founder.”

The Postmodern Prince: Critical Theory, Left Strategy, and the Making of a New Political Subject. By John Sanbonmatsu. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2004. 272p. $65.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.

As the title suggests, this book has a great and admirable ambition. It seeks to write a version of Antonio Gramsci's Modern Prince for a post–New Left, postmodern era. While it does not actually do this, it does provide a critical settling of accounts both with the legacy of the American New Left and the subsequent appearance of a (largely academic) leftism informed by postmodern theory. More significantly, it tries to suggest, though very sketchily, what a unitary actor with strategic acumen and a leftist program might look like, given the decline of parties of the working class and the fragmentation of emancipatory social movements. Both the criticism and the reconstructive aim are informed by Gramsci's emphasis on politics as a struggle for hegemony.

The Idea of the State. By Peter J. Steinberger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 344p. $75.00.

In the early decades of American political science and its political theory, the state was the main subject matter of the discipline. This book recalls that era (though it is situated mainly in the deeper history of political thought). As the author recognizes, its subject matter is today somewhat unfashionable in political theory. Moreover, the book's theory is first and foremost metaphyscial rather then political, thus reversing the priority that John Rawls and most other contemporary theorists proclaim. To complete his separation from contemporary theoretical currents, the kind of state advocated by Peter Steinberger is “omnicompetent in scope, absolute in authority and organic in composition” (p. xiv).

Solidarity in Europe: The History of an Idea. By Steinar Stjernø. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 406p. $75.00.

Steinar Stjernø's important and fascinating book will be valuable to political theorists and sociologists interested in the idea of solidarity from the nineteenth century through the present, to political historians concerned about the uses of solidarity in the political discourses of left-wing, religious, and fascist parties and movements, and to historians of political thought and of ideas who address methodological questions in their field.

Which Rights Should Be Universal? By William J. Talbott. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 232p. $35.00.

A thousand words cannot begin to state a thousand disagreements, or even to summarize the wealth of subtle arguments that provoked them, and so you will just have to read this engaging and audacious book for yourself.

Soft News Goes to War: Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy in the New Media Age. By Matthew A. Baum. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. 344p. $39.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Most research aimed at understanding television's influence on citizens' knowledge and attention to current events has focused on network news. Yet hard news constitutes only a small fraction of TV programming. The television day is filled with shows that come under the rubric of “soft news”—running the gamut from celebrity gossip to late-night comedy, afternoon talk shows, and prime-time magazines. Matthew Baum's book fills an important gap in political communication research. Baum asks what people learn about hard news from soft news programs. He argues that watching soft news programs gets people who would otherwise have little interest in foreign affairs to pay attention to international crises.

Adaptive Governance: Integrating Science, Policy, and Decision Making. Edited by Ronald D. Brunner, Toddi A. Steelman, Lindy Coe-Juell, Christina M. Cromley, Christine M. Edwards, and Donna W. Tucker. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. 368p. $79.50 cloth, $29.50 paper.

Swimming Upstream: Collaborative Approaches to Watershed Management. Edited by Paul A. Sabatier, Will Focht, Mark Lubell, Zev Trachtenberg, Arnold Vedlitz, and Marty Matlock. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. 327p. $65.00 cloth, $26.00 paper.

For almost two decades, alternative or environmental dispute resolution (EDR) has been a hot topic for many scholars and practitioners of environmental and natural resources policy and administration. There are now many books and articles that examine the promises and pitfalls of ERD. For the uninitiated, EDR can include any type of conflict or dispute resolution that falls outside of the normal state or federal judicial or bureaucratic system. This can include everything from negotiation, mediation, and arbitration (commonly used in the legal system—and not typically thought of as EDR) to things with names like collaborative, cooperative, or collective management and adaptive governance. The normally cited perquisites for ERD are that the negotiations be voluntary, that the parties participate in the process directly, that participants may withdraw from the process at any time, that third-party facilitators have no formal authority to impose a decision, and that the parties agree to whatever is decided. If this sounds like getting people together to talk and work things out, that is because this is what it is.

Apprehending Politics: News Media and Individual Political Development. By Marco Calavita. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. 285p. $81.50 cloth, $27.95 paper.

Marco Calavita conducted extensive interviews with 15 “Generation X” Americans in order to understand their political ideas and how contextual factors (particularly the news media) influenced these thoughts, feelings, and actions. He wisely prefers the term “individual political development” (p. 6) to “political socialization” because he finds it truer to the complex, dynamic, lifelong experience. He is particularly interested in exploring the role that the news media play in attitude formation, stability, and change.

Politics in the Laboratory: The Constitution of Human Genomics. By Ira H. Carmen. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. 324p. $35.

This book is sure to spark debate among readers. It will also prove to be tough sledding for many biologists and political scientists alike. Political scientists will be challenged by the author's understanding of the language, logic, and findings of genetics and the human genomics (his detailed analysis of techniques of genetic analysis, for instance, will be alien to many political scientists). Biologists will be hard-pressed at times to get a handle on the political side of the book (e.g., throwaway references to “strict scrutiny” may be obscure to biologists not familiar with American constitutional doctrine). Thus, a number of readers may well find it frustrating to launch into this book. The author himself acknowledges this when he says (p. xii): “The study may be hard going for some political scientists. It will also probably be hard going for genomicists. They are as ignorant of political science as political scientists are ignorant of them.”

Cash, Color, and Colonialism: The Politics of Tribal Acknowledgment. By Renée Ann Cramer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. 224p. $24.95.

The literature of tribal politics and federal Indian law has largely been the province of law reviews and legal scholars. The subject matter is complicated, confusing, and contradictory. There are more than 500 Indian tribes and native villages that have been acknowledged (recognized) by the federal government, and each of these governments is unique in its history, heritage, culture, language, and land. Unlike other governments within the United States, tribal governments have no constitutional basis; therefore, they have been treated over the years by the United States as foreign nations (treaties and wars), as wards of the government (reservations and trust status), and as sovereign dependent nations. Federal Indian law is rendered more obscure by the fact that it affects less than 2% of the American population, and that, largely rural, population has the highest rate of poverty and unemployment in the country. All of these factors have led the First Americans to be highly marginalized in American politics, both by politicians and political scientists. This recently changed when the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) (1988), allowed gaming on Indian reservations, if the states wherein they were located allowed such gambling even under restricted conditions. The success of Indian gaming establishments has produced a type of Indian Renaissance, but only for federally acknowledged tribes. Indian tribes and communities that are not federally acknowledged have been unable to share in these economic and cultural benefits. Federal acknowledgment is the critical factor in the success of an Indian tribe in maintaining its sovereignty, culture, economy, and land base. Without federal acknowledgment, a tribe is not a tribe and its members are not Indians, regardless of heritage.

The Urban Origins of Suburban Autonomy. By Richardson Dilworth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. 280p. $49.95.

In his book, Richardson Dilworth takes the familiar argument that cities use development policy to compete for residents in our fragmented metropolitan areas and flips it on its head. In Dilworth's account, development policy is an important causal factor in the creation of the fragmented metropolitan areas in which this competition occurs. His detailed historical accounts of how communities in New York and New Jersey in the late 1800s dealt with issues of incorporation, consolidation, and annexation speak to current interest among urban politics scholars in patterns of suburbanization and the politics of regional coordination. By providing interesting accounts of how a good goes from being defined as private to public (e.g., water, gas), this book may also interest public policy scholars more generally.

Mayors and the Challenge of Urban Leadership. By Richard M. Flanagan. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004. 230p. $34.50.

At its core, regime theory, which is now the dominant paradigm in urban politics, looks at the changing nature of governing coalitions in urban America. Richard Flanagan modifies regime theory by applying Karen Orren and Stephen Skowronek's theory of executive power, which was originally developed to explain presidential politics, to mayors. In particular, Flanagan looks at how temporal factors influence mayoral leadership during regime formation, consolidation, and decay.

Patchwork Nation: Sectionalism and Political Change in American Politics. By James G. Gimpel and Jason E. Schuknecht. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. 488p. $58.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.

James Gimpel and Jason Schuknecht are on a mission to revive the study of U.S. political geography. In their book, the duo make a compelling case for what party strategists, candidates, and pundits already know: Place matters generally and, sometimes, significantly. The authors, however, take readers far beyond a simplistic “Maryland-is-different-from-Arkansas” viewpoint or a red- versus blue-state dichotomy to a sophisticated and nuanced investigation of sectionalism.

Why Government Succeeds and Why It Fails. By Amihai Glazer and Lawrence S. Rothenberg. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. 224p. $42.00 cloth, $18.95 paper.

In a 1964 book review (“American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies, and Political Theory, World Politics 16 [4]: 677, 693–715), Theodore Lowi challenged the conventional wisdom that politics determined policy. The causal relationship, he argued, ran in the opposite direction: “[F]or every type of policy there is likely to be a distinctive type of political relationship” (1964, 688). In their bold effort to explain why government succeeds (and why it fails), Amihai Glazer and Lawrence Rothenberg again prompt us to examine the relationship between politics and policy, this time by setting the “political machinations” of politicians and interest groups to the side in order to ask: How do economic conditions impact the success or failure of a public policy? To try to determine the success or failure of a policy by examining “only the interaction between politicians and constituencies is like investigating the efficacy of medical treatment by looking only at the motives of physicians and ignoring the biology of different diseases” (p. 2). For Glazer and Rothenberg, an exclusive focus on politics ignores the “biology” (so to speak) of different policies that are best discovered by examining the ways in which rational economic actors respond to government actions. More specifically, they argue that an analysis of public policy based upon four economic constraints—credibility, rational expectations, crowding out or in, and multiple equilibria—will help reveal the kinds of problems that government is most likely able to solve, and why.