2001 02 04 book reviews

This section includes book reviews of 600-900 words, as well as some book notes of 100-200 words, on books of particular interest to the members of our group. If members either have a review that they consider of interest to the SG, or a recent book of their own, which they would like to see reviewed in the newsletter, please contact Cas Mudde at: c.mudde@ed.ac.uk.

Book Notes The Concise Encyclopedia of Democracy, Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2000, 452 pp., USD 95.00, ISBN 1-56802-426-6 (hbk).

From the book cover: "The Concise Encyclopedia of Democracy is a single-volume version of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Democracy. It features more than 300 articles covering democratic concepts, individuals, and countries. The articles emphasize the historical and practical, rather than the theoretical.

Readers will find five types of articles in the volume: biographies, regional and country profiles, topical analyses, historical overviews, and discussions of important documents, speeches, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Biographical sketches of individuals significant in the development of democratic theory or in the implementation of democracy in the major nations of the contemporary world bring the topics to life. The biographies bridge more than 2,000 years – from Plato to Wei Jongsheng – and span the world – from Nelson Mandela to Margaret Thatcher. Although the topics are international in scope, particular emphasis is given to the American experience and the democracies that are part of the high school curriculum and introductory college courses.

Especially valuable to students are new entries on the U.S. Constitution and general government practices that meet the National Standards in Civics and Government. The 150 maps, photographs, charts, and timelines are designed to present researchers with information in a concise, visual format."

Christoph Butterwegge and Georg Lohmann (eds.), Jugend, Rechtsextremismus und Gewalt. Analysen und Argumente, Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 2nd edition, 2001, 304 pp., DM 29.80 DM / SFr 27.50 / ÖS 218, ISBN 3-8100-3222-0 (pbk).

Reviewed by Thomas Ohlemacher (University of Hamburg & Criminological Institute of Lower Saxony

This reader is a collection of essays of liberal and left-wing sociologists, political scientists, law scholars and teachers which aims to provide "analyses and arguments" for school and adult education in order to support "politische Bildung" (political education). The introduction of Butterwegge gives an excellent overview on the "state of the art" of German research into right-wing extremism, which is also interesting to the academic scholar. In contrast, some of the following essays might be of more use to teachers and pupils approaching the field for the first time, as far as theories and empirical analyses are concerned. Other essays describe and analyse various forms of possible action against extremism on the right. They look at proceedings in law courts, describe the "failure" of journalists reporting on asylum seekers, analyse the new strategies employed by extremists to recruit young supporters and offer insights into the Internet as a platform of extremism. Blue prints for anti-right-wing action in schools and plans for a multicultural school life are also presented. The best contribution in terms of practical use is the essay of Armin Pfahl-Traughber, who presents eighteen claims of right-wing revisionists (regarding the Third Reich), discusses them briefly, and then offers literature for further reading.

All in all, this volume is a good source for material and suggestions for adult education. However, some of the essays appear a bit schoolmasterly or bossy in terms of moral and ideology. This is in contrast to the editors’ claim that no definite "answer" could and should be given to right-wing activities: Democratic pluralism in the (re)actions should be the answer to the right-wing threat (p.10).

Russell F. Farnen, Karl Peter Frtzsche, Ivan Kos and Rüdiger Meyenberg (eds.), Tolerance in Transition. Oldenburg: BIS, 2001, 207 pp., DM 25.00, ISBN 3-8142-0749-1 (pbk).

Reviewed by Ami Pedahzur (University of Haifa) The strength of the book, which is mostly based on papers presented at a 1995 conference in Magdeburg, lies in its different theoretical frameworks on, and methodological approaches to, the questions of tolerance and democracy. While some of the scholars are looking into the sources of tolerance and its opposites (intolerance, racism, xenophobia), others focus on the different ways to increase levels of tolerance (most notably through ‘civic education’). Moreover, besides presenting interesting case studies, almost every chapter addresses conceptual and theoretical issues. Chapter 3, for example, written by Russell Farnen, exhibits an intriguing attempt to clarify the concepts of tolerance, neo-nationalism and neo-racism and their

interrelations. After reading the different chapters in the book, I could not but fully agree with Thomas R. Henschel’s conclusion "…education for tolerance necessarily consists of two major phases: 1. To raise awareness of diversity and acknowledge the principal right of every construction of diversity. 2. To teach conflict resolution competencies and show that win-win solutions are possible" (pp. 184-185). I also found his ideas on how to create such programs for tolerance education very intriguing.

To conclude, this is an important book which covers a wide range of topics, perceptions and case studies. Another advantage of this volume is the fact that it does not hide its normative aspects. Consequently, this can be an important source not only for students of tolerance, but also for policy makers and educators who face problems of intolerance on an every day basis.

G.V. Kostyrchenko, Tainaya politika Stalina: vlast’ i antisemitizm.

Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 2001, 784 pp., ISBN 5-71331017-X (hbk).

Reviewed by Vlad Mykhnenko (University of Cambridge) Stalin’s Secret Policy: Power and Anti-Semitism by Gennadii Kostyrchenko is a voluminous book concerning one of the lesser studied aspects of Soviet politics. The publication has been sponsored by the Russian Jewish Congress. From the author's summary: "This is the first fundamental academic study about the application of anti-Semitism as a tool used to realise Stalin’s totalitarian regime. This book is a well-documented study based on previously closed archives of the Communist party and Soviet state high authorities. The volume is focused on two closely interconnected processes: (a) the concentration of absolute power in Stalin’s hands, and (b) Stalin’s turning to popular anti-Semitic activity aimed at blaming ‘conspiracies of Jewish nationalists’ for real political troubles."

It should be mentioned that in the preface to the book, the Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya – one of the most respected Russian academic publishing houses – openly disagrees with the author’s evaluation of some statesmen, artists and public figures. Nonetheless, the publishers recognise the significance of this ‘controversial study’ (p. 12).

Frank-Lothar Kroll, Utopie als Ideologie: Geschichtsdenken und politisches Handeln im Dritten Reich, Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1999, 2nd ed., 368 pp., DM 88.00, ISBN 3-506-74827-0.

Reviewed by Andreas Umland (Harvard University) With this excellent study of the political thought of Adolf Hitler, Alfred Rosenberg, Richard Walter Darré, Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels, the Erlangen historian Frank-Lothar Kroll has, perhaps, provided the most useful study of the ideology of the Third Reich so far. Kroll shows, among other things, that a strictly biological racism was not as unequivocally dominant in Nazi thought as has been assumed in many earlier interpretations of the Third Reich (for instance, in those based largely on Hitler’s worldview).

The "major theoretician" of the NSDAP (p. 123), Alfred Rosenberg, for instance, spoke of race as a "mythic experience" (as quoted on p. 106). His particular anti-Semitism was anti-Judaic rather than biologically racist, and primarily based on an understanding of the Jews as an inferior religious community (pp. 121-123). With regard to the major propagandist of Nazism, Kroll goes so far as to speak of Goebbels’ "extreme distance" to the idea of race (p. 259). Thus Goebbels spoke, for example, of the "rubbish of racematerialism" (as quoted on p. 259), and regarded Himmler as, "in many regards, mad" (as quoted on p. 292).

Kroll, in general, puts significant emphasis on the polymorphous character of Nazi ideology which he links to the polycratic structure of the regime. All Nazi leaders had an extremely Manichean worldview; yet, they understood the core conflicts in world history in somewhat different ways. Whereas Hitler saw the main confrontation to be that between the Jews and the Aryans, Rosenberg juxtaposed the Germanic and Roman civilisations to each other, Goebbels the Western plutocratic states with national socialism, Darré the peasantry against the nomads (p. 164), and Himmler Europe against Asia (pp. 214-215).

Stanislao Pugliese, Italian Fascism and Antifascism: A Critical Anthology, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001, 234 pp., GBP 45.00, ISBN 0-7190-5639-X (hbk) / GBP 14.99, ISBN 0-7190-5638-1 (pbk).

Reviewed by A. James Gregor (University of California, Berkeley) Stanislao Pugliese delivers a brief account of a long, complicated and controversial period of Italian history that is less objectionable than most. It is to be expected that, given the editor's interpretation of the period, the selected material would, by and large, reflect his views. Granted all that, there are some issues that cry out for more sensitive and/or adequate treatment.

Pugliese, for example, leaves the reader with the impression that Fascism’s Manifesto degli scienziati razzisti of July 1938 (pp.146-149) was

somehow directly responsible for the anti-Semitic "Holocaust in Italy" (p.19)-and yet, we are almost immediately informed that "85 percent of Italian Jews survived the Holocaust, a survival rate second only to Denmark", known to have been exceedingly protective of ‘its’ Jews.

Pugliese’s anthology provides a wide selection of relevant texts -- many of which would not be otherwise easily available to students of the period. It might even be plausibly argued that some of the selections were specifically chosen to be provocative. For example, the inclusion of Umberto Eco's "L’eterno fascismo" (pp. 230-234) or of a selection from the works by Antonio Gramsci (pp. 137-144).

In effect, Pugliese’s collection accomplishes everything that we might legitimately expect of it. It provides a point of departure for the study of an enormously complex historical sequence; it stimulates an entire series of open-ended queries; and it provokes its readers to seek out literature that might provide further insights -- in a predictable effort to resolve the contested issues generated by the anthology itself. Stanislao Pugliese has performed a significant service for students embarking on a study of one of the most fateful periods of the 20th century.

Book Reviews R. Scott Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000, 429 pp., USD 26.95, ISBN 0-8476-8555-1 (pbk).

Reviewed by Eugene V. Gallagher (Connecticut College) Appleby’s generative observation is that human beings respond to what they perceive as sacred in diverse ways. Some may feel called to defend, extend the scope of, or purify their religious world through the exercise of violence, while others may believe with equal passion that it is their mission to draw upon their religious resources in order to make peace. He asserts that "neither religion nor religious militancy per se is a source of deadly conflict: the problem is extremism" (p.13).

Appleby identifies the religious extremist as one who is dedicated to achieving victory over the enemy by any means necessary, including the use of violence. Such extremists are also exclusivists in their understandings of both their religious tradition and their communities. In their interactions with outsiders they may implement both civic or legal intolerance and violent

intolerance through the use of force. In contrast, those interested in establishing and securing peace at least practice civic tolerance toward outsiders and may also adopt non-violent tolerance as a response to intolerant extremists. While Appleby classifies both peacebuilders and violent actors as militants in the service of their religious visions, he reserves the appellation of extremist for the latter. His primary contributions are to counterbalance some familiar tales of religious violence with the stories of religious actors who have been militant in their pursuit of peace and to argue that religiously motivated violence is, in the end, self-defeating.

Working with the support of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict and often depending on the evidence and analyses developed by the Fundamentalism Project that he co-directed with Martin Marty, Appleby introduces case studies drawn from a wide range of cultural and religious traditions, including Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, Buddhists in Cambodia, Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere in the Islamic world, and various religious actors in South Africa, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Israel and Palestine. He provides substantial accounts and interpretations of the peacemaking efforts of the Buddhist monk Maha Ghosananda in Cambodia, the Mennonite Central Committee in Nicaragua, Somalia, South Africa, and Northern Ireland among other places, and the Italian intentional community of Sant’Egidio. Appleby sets his consideration of specific cases within a general characterization of religion that emphasizes the diversity and malleability of historical traditions and the interactions between religious beliefs and actions and specific local contexts.

Appleby is convinced that violence by religious extremists will always fail to achieve its goals. He argues that extremist Islam, for example, "will fail because its vision of Islam stands little or no chance of being realized: the hope for conformity is doomed by the historical variation and internal pluralism in the Islamic tradition, by the consequent areas of radical disagreement among devout and revered interpreters of the tradition, and by the inability of extremists who reject cooperation with outsiders to deliver viable structural reforms to meliorate economic and social inequalities that haunt the majority of Muslims" (p.107). Appleby applies a similar analysis to extremist advocates in other religious traditions. He sees much more hope for the militant efforts of religious peacebuilders. For him, the diversity of human responses to the sacred opens the possibility of both theoretical and practical efforts at peacebuilding.

Appleby’s understanding of religion is key to his evaluation of the continuing prospects for both religious violence and religiously inspired peacemaking. He

sees religious traditions as arguments that unfold through time. In his estimation, "strong religions," ones in which the argument remains vigorous and multi-faceted and engages a wide variety of participants both formally and informally, have the capacity to move their members "away from narrowly conceived ethnic, nationalist, and tribal self definitions and toward a more tolerant and non-violent social presence" (p.79). "Religious illiteracy," on the other hand, increases the opportunities for victimization and manipulation of religious people who have few religious resources to counter extremist and exclusivist interpretations of their tradition. The distinction between strong and weak religions highlights the crucial role of religious leaders who, Appleby states, "stand at the place where the argument unfolds – where the ideals of the religious tradition intersect with the claims of the concrete situation" (p.56).

While he acknowledges that the core of extremist movements is typically made up of committed believers who have no doubt that their leader directly represents God’s will, Appleby also argues that religious leaders can be effective in reinforcing their traditions’ beliefs and practices that promote peace and reconciliation, especially when they have significant independence from external state control and regulation in a given society. In such situations they are free to cooperate with various other actors, including NGOs, to promote a common agenda.

Though well aware of the substantial evidence that religion can be used to inspire, legitimate, and even sanctify violence, Appleby remains hopeful that the nature of religion itself and the historical traditions of individual religions offer much more support for conflict transformation and peacebuilding than they do for violence. He contends that in the end religious violence undermines its own cause, compromises the moral authority of its perpetrators, and fails to achieve its goals. It is a measure of his success that his arguments remain at least plausible in light of so much recent evidence to the contrary.

Rajeev Bhargava (ed.), Secularism and Its Critics, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998, 550 pp., GBP 31.50, ISBN 0-1956-3987-1 Reviewed by Steven Leonard Jacobs (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) We are indebted to Professor Rajeev Bhargava (Jawaharlal Nehru University) for this important collection of essays addressing the so-called confrontation of religion and secularism on the Indian sub-continent, a confrontation not only seemingly between the Hindu majority and the Islamic minority, but involving the whole question of the dialectic between religion and secularism as it manifests itself within the twin realities of government and politics. Reading

these essays and writing this review from the vantage point of the United States, where the ongoing issue is that of the so-called "separation of church and state", these fifteen essays reframe the debate from a wholly other vantage point. For the Indian peoples, ultimately, the questions come down to two: Can two competing religious traditions, each comprised of large numbers of peoples, as well as others, live together and live together harmoniously and well? Can the government itself construct constitutional and legal statutes and ordinances which neither favor the majority or minority nor disadvantage either?

The book itself is divided into four sections: The Secular Imperative, Secularism in the West, Secularism in India: The Early Debate, and Secularism in India: The Recent Debate. Both the Introduction and the final essay "What is Secularism For?" are by Bhargava and frame well the issues raised by others, all of which are the result of a relatively new nation-state coming of age "in the aftermath of its declaration of Independence in August 1947" (p.1), one which continues to experience violent flare-ups between its two largest religious communities.

In compiling this collection, Bhargava writes of his three objectives: (1) "to provide the reader with recent writing on the debate over secularism in India" (p.2); (2) "to bring sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists face to face with political philosophers" (p.3); and (3) "to remind ourselves that the writing on secularism in India has a history" (p.4). By fully devoting one-third of this collection to fully Western notions of secularism, tolerance, religious liberty, freedom of choice, and the like, Bhargava correctly notes, as do the essayists themselves (Charles Taylor, T. M. Scanlon, Michael J. Sandel, Jean Bauberot, and Joseph H. Carens and Melissa S. Williams) that here, too, the issues remain contentious and unresolved. How much the more so, therefore, in India itself, where the general perception remains that it is primarily a Hindu country with a large Muslim minority, that secularism versus religious is, in truth and in fact, the wrong issue, that majority religious toleration of religious minority is preferable and historical, and that the seemingly secularist government, itself largely influenced by Nehru’s vision (a secularist and avowedly non-religious) rather than Gandhi’s vision (religious but politically neutral), continues to err in its formulation of policy. Bhargava, interestingly enough, is a secularist, a political philosopher, and remains fully committed to the proposition of what he calls "contextual secularism" which he understands to mean a defense of minority rights, builds upon traditions of toleration already extent in both Hindu and Muslim religious traditions, and consolidates whatever positive good already has been achieved. (pp.536-542)

The three essays that comprise Section III – D. E. Smith’s "India as a Secular State," and Marc Galanter’s "Secularism, East and West" and "Hinduism, Secularism, and the Indian Judiciary" – present the problems of the debate historically. Smith’s 1963 book by the same name (Princeton University Press) continues to be seen as thelocus classicus and seminal text of the discussion, positing as it does a thoroughly Western notion of secularism and the separation of religion and state. However, as Galanter both thoroughly analyzes it and critiques it, it is a flawed model for India, its theoretical foundation of what a secular state must be is inadequate (p.236). In his second essay, however, he strongly contends that the Indian judiciary is mindful of its own inadequacies, has made both positive and negative legal decisions, but nonetheless is properly on the road to a state model which neither favors nor disadvantages various religious traditions.

The fourth and final section of the book – Secularism in India: The Recent Debate – begins with three essays, those of T. N. Madan, Ashis Nandy, and Partha Chatterjee, which strongly and stridently argue that secularism as it is currently understood by both Westerners and the Indian governing elite (themselves non-religious and secularist and largely both upper-class and Western-trained) is the wrong model for India’s present and future. Stanley J. Tambiah understands in his analysis the issues to have already reached the "crisis stage" (p.418), while Amartya Sen offers a thorough analysis of the predominant six arguments (non-existence, favoritism, prior identity, Muslim sectarianism, anti-modernist, and cultural) why the pervasive mood of the country is that of scepticism regarding the ability of the government to achieve a proper secular balance between not favoring one or all religious traditions and not discriminating against one or all of the same.

In sum, Secularism and Its Critics is well worth the time both to read and reflect upon the issues raised, the critiques presented, and the suggestions of tentative resolutions offered, both as regards India herself and all nations, Western and other, where religious communities both contribute to the formation of state policy and divide nation-states into "us versus them" with predictably tragic results.

Raphael Cohen-Almagor (ed.), Challenges to Democracy. Essays in Honour and Memory of Isaiah Berlin, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000, 305 pp., USD 89.95, ISBN 0-7546-2095-6 (hbk).

Reviewed by Anton Pelinka (University of Innsbruck)

The book is not about Isaiah Berlin or his political philosophy and political theory. It is a book about democracy and extremism, dedicated to Isaiah Berlin. Most of the 13 essays (and two introductions) are papers presented at an international conference held at the University of Haifa in 1997. The conference dealt with the conflict between democracy and religious fundamentalism, between democratic tolerance and the necessity to defend democracy against intolerance, and was especially influenced by (and concentrated on) the impact of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination on Israel’s democracy.

The book consists of four parts – historical perspectives, philosophical and sociological perspectives, legal perspectives, and political and media perspectives. One link to Isaiah Berlin’s memory is Berlin’s interest in Israeli democracy – this very special democracy in a region without democracy; this democracy with an almost unique mixture of contradicting secular and religious factors; this democracy under pressure from enemies outside and two kinds of enemies inside: one type with a Palestinian identity, the other with the very same identity as Rabin’s assassin, Jewish. Another link is, of course, Isaiah Berlin’s general interest in contradictions within democratic systems and within democratic theory.

Interestingly, the country which is analysed most in this book – second after Israel – is Canada. The reason for this emphasis on the Canadian experience is the Canadian understanding of multiculturalism, of balancing liberal democracy (in the sense of majority rule) and (ethnic, cultural, religious) diversity. Canada is an outstanding example for some specificities of transatlantic relationship and partnership – because it is more European than the United States and more American than the European democracies. The essay written by Will Kymlicka and Raphael Cohen-Almagor "Democracy and multiculturalism" (pp.89-118) combines specific Canadian and Israeli experiences to develop and discuss a general theory of "multination states" and "polyethnic states" – a good example that the beginning of all social science is comparison, and the beginning of political science is comparative politics.

What is missing is the continental European experience with democratic instruments directed at reducing political freedom in the interest of political freedom. This is, of course, part of the general topic of the book and broadly discussed – e.g. in Aharon Barak’s article "Freedom of expression and its limitations" with particular reference to the US debate (pp.176–188). But the concept of "defensive democracy", as expressed in the legal construct of "wehrhafte Demokratie" in the German Constitution of 1949 – which has been

a model for many post-1945 European constitutions – would have been an interesting example for an approach beyond the Anglo-Canadian-American and Israeli focus of the book. Post-fascism and post-communism are an extremely rich background for developing policies in the border regions of freedom and violence, of protecting or possibly overprotecting democracy by reducing certain liberties. But it is exactly this background which the book is missing.

What is of special interest is the linkage between theory and the book’s one central event – Rabin’s assassination. Oded Balaban presents in his essay "Causes and results of political assassination: on Rabin’s legacy" (pp.245– 258) a perspective from the viewpoint of (especially Israeli) foreign and defence policy; Saul Zadka’s essay "Middle Eastern media coverage of prime minister Rabin’s assassination" (pp.259–293) provides less of an analysis and more of a documentation of the impact of Rabin’s death on the whole region; and Raphael Cohen-Almagor links, in his introduction, the empirical evidence of this one act of political violence to the political theory of Isaiah Berlin and to different aspects of liberal democracy.

In his introductory and biographical sketch, "Isaiah Berlin: a personal impression", Henry Hardy, Berlin’s editor and literary trustee, explains indirectly why Berlin could or even must be seen as a person whose theory (or philosophy) can be used legitimately for the topic of this book. Berlin was a "Philosopher, political theorist, historian of ideas; essayist, critic, teacher; Russian, Englishman, Jew" (p.xxxi). In other words, Berlin represents the world of multiple identities that challenges the traditional understanding of democracy based on the concept of a homogenous nation state, of "We, the people", of majority rule, and of a closed and consistent system of values. The contradiction between unlimited freedom and pluralist democracy – the very topic of the book and the contradiction pluralist democracy has to learn to live with – is expressed in Hardy’s evaluation: Berlin "argued that not all values can be jointly realised in one life, or in a single society or period of history… so that there can be no single objective ranking of ends, no uniquely right set of principles by which to live" (p.xxxi).

Farnen, R. F., H. Dekker, H., D.B. German, and R. Meyenberg (eds.), Democracies in Transition: Political Culture and Socialization Transformed in West and East, Oldenburg: BIS Verlag, 2000, 543 pp., DM 35,00, ISBN 3-9142-0732-7 (pbk).

Reviewed by Bojan Todosijevic (Central European University)

This volume presents papers presented at the IPSA/RCPSE Round Table Conferences in 1995 and 1996. It is divided into five parts. The first part mainly deals with the specificities of political culture in East Central Europe (ECE). Some of the authors focus on the presumed ‘deficiencies’ in the civic traditions of these newly democratised countries. For example, Csepeli and German maintain that ECE "mainly exhibits Gemeinschaft rather than Gesellschaft mentality". Gaidys (for the Baltic countries) and Stefanovic and German (comparing West and ECE) argue that religion has major consequences for the development of democratic political culture. The other authors emphasise the more universal nature of the social processes in the region. Kos turns attention away from the infamous ‘Balkan mentality’ to the universal psychological phenomenon of fear, which underlied the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, and suggests preventive steps to be taken in other potential multinational conflict situations. Hagendoorn also explains ethnic stereotypes and nationalism in ECE through universalistic concepts such as perceived threat and realistic economic and political group competition.

The second part contains analyses of electoral behaviour in Hungary and Poland. Electoral victory of the reformed former communist parties in the second democratic elections in many countries of the region led the authors to believe that a return to an authoritarian regime was still possible. The effects of political socialisation under the authoritarian political regime are seen as potentially threatening for the consolidation of democracy in the examined countries.

The government and/or market regulation of mass media is the topic of the third, shortest part of the book. While Koch and Fuchs warn that deregulation under the ‘free market’ banner might have negative consequences for the quality of mass media in Germany, Konzhukov argues that the emancipation of the Russian mass media from government control would have beneficial effects.

The fourth part of the book addresses political socialisation of the youth.

Jerabek and Novak analyse the determinants of political culture and attitudes of the Czech youth. Dekker and Portenge find a "striking" lack of knowledge and interest in EU politics among the Dutch youth, and suggest that schools can help in creating more politically active citizens. Conway is devoted to the methodological consideration of the advantages and problems related to longitudinal research in political socialisation and education.

A number of issues in political education are addressed in the fifth section of the book. These include women’s education in Slovakia, the need and means

for civic education in Bulgaria, drug education in Germany, the relationship between teaching style preferences and authoritarianism, dis/continuities in the German educational system, communitarian vs. neo-liberal definitions of citizenship and their consequences for (moral) education in schools, and measurement and explanation of political knowledge. Although Western models of political education are often seen as examples to be followed in ECE, Sünker more sceptically maintains that "the task of conceptualizing a democratic pedagogy and a related democratic educational practice remains on the agenda".

Thus, the book contains empirical research reports, theoretical and methodological discussions, and more practical policy proposals. There are several uniting themes in this otherwise rather heterogeneous volume. One is the emphasis on the concept of political culture, whether as an independent variable influencing macro-political outcomes (e.g., consolidation of democracy), or as a dependent variable which can be explained in terms of socio-demographic, psychological or political variables. A second is the focus on ECE countries, with an often implied assumption that this region needs special attention in terms of political education if it wants to join the democratic world. Finally, most of the contributions do not appear ‘value-free’. Rather they seem inspired by values of democracy, tolerance, and civic culture.

Fortunately, in most cases this does not interfere with the quality of the analyses.

Given the breadth of the topics covered and perspectives represented, the volume is certainly a useful source book on political socialisation and education in the ECE in the early years of transition. The book also deserves attention because of the high academic quality of most of the papers. The reviewer found chapters that included empirical analyses particularly useful.

Given the scarcity of survey data on the region, this book can also serve as a resource for further comparative research. However, its unique value is that it documents the social and political trends in the early 1990s, and, not less importantly, the main questions academics asked when they analysed postcommunist transition from the political socialisation perspective.

However, some weaknesses must be noted too. A more sensitive reader might be troubled by occasionally espoused stereotypical images of the EastWest European divide, and the view of the imagined ‘West’ as the unquestioned model to follow, especially among some of the East Central European authors. A more significant problem is the somewhat unequal quality of the contributions. Finally, given the rapid pace of changes, it is normal that some of the papers appear somewhat dated. For example, it

seems clear today that the claim: "the rebirth of communism under a social democratic camouflage is another regional trend" (p. 498) was an overly pessimistic diagnosis.

Nevertheless, for those interested in political socialisation and education whether in general or particularly in the ECE region -, for researchers and students alike, this is unquestionably a valuable book.

Neil Gregor (ed.), Nazism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, 474 pp., GBP 15.99, ISBN 0-19-289281-9 (pbk).

Reviewed by Aristotle Kallis (University of Edinburgh) Neil Gregor’s collection of secondary sources on National Socialism constitutes an ambitious and overall successful effort to present a representative body of the massive (and constantly expanding) literature on the Nazi movement and regime. With 107 short excerpts from both older and contemporary works this reader’s structure and layout reflects the emphasis of the "Oxford Readers" series.

Unlike Roger Griffin’s "Fascism" reader, this is an anthology of interpretations referring to one particular "fascist" movement-regime. The focus here is primarily on providing an overview of the bibliography on broader themes, reflecting the trajectory of Nazism from movement to regime and assessing its painful legacy for both modern German and European history. As the author makes abundantly clear in his Introduction, his intention is not "to survey and reproduce in detail historiographical developments relating to specific aspects of National Socialism" (p. 16). Nor does Gregor wish to be implicated in the wider debate about the nature of generic fascism, or the relevance of National Socialism to such a methodological template for analysis. The "Germanocentricity" of his volume should not, in his opinion, insinuate particularism; and, to dispel any such doubts, he declares himself in favour of analysing Nazism "within the context of inter-war European fascism in general". Those interested in the relation of National Socialism to the theory and experience of interwar fascism are encouraged by the author to stick with Griffin’s earlier volume.

The concept of the project is clear: to introduce aspects of the literature on broad issues such as the nature of Nazism, its evolution from movement to regime, its internal structures and political priorities, its radicalisation in time and its post-war transformation into a debated item of historical memory. The featured excerpts (typically three-to-four pages long) are rigorously edited in

order to produce a representative and accurate sample of the main argument that the original authors intended to put forward. They are organised in seven large thematic sections that generally follow a chronological pattern - from the rise of the National Socialist movement and its initial characterisations to its nature as regime and finally its bewildering legacy to post-war generations.

Each section is then sub-divided into shorter units dealing with a variety of issues: some controversial, such as Sonderweg, consensus and resistance, de-nazification and the Historikerstreit of the 1980s; other purely descriptive, such as "the National Socialist movement", "Marxist theories" and "charismatic leadership".

Inevitably, Gregor does succumb to the pressure to address major historiographical issues, in spite of his earlier renunciation. The last section in particular ("The Legacy of National Socialism") offers an interesting sample of writings on the debates about post-war German "identity" and the "historicisation" of National Socialism. In this respect, the exclusion of, for example, Goldhagen from the anthology (on the basis that this controversial monograph "has nothing to tell us about ordinary Germans") is perhaps justifiable from the viewpoint of Gregor’s desire to shield the reader of his volume from what he perceives as an unedifying interpretation; but it should have merited at least a more convincing rebuttal by the author, given the sensation it caused both within Germany and internationally. Similarly, Gregor’s selections for the Historikerstreit part of his volume consciously overrepresent the views of those who detected a "pernicious" political agenda in the debate, thus excluding from his selection examples of the sort of "revisionism" that Ernst Nolte and other German historians failed to stimulate in the 1980s. There is an implicit moral judgement involved here, with which I personally am not in disagreement. Such a conscious choice, however, raises two further issues: first, whether Gregor’s intentional elimination of such works mitigates the stimulating effect of his reader; and, second, whether the antithesis without its thesis can form the basis for the potential reader’s meaningful exposure to historiographical debates.

This issue aside, Gregor’s anthology serves two different purposes equally successfully. It constitutes an excellent introduction to a large number of reference works on National Socialism in a stimulatingly wide variety of topics.

But it also provides the already "initiated" readers in the history of interwar Germany or fascism with an invaluable resource that can function either as a constant point of reference or an incentive to further study. The inclusion of translated excerpts from relevant publications in German makes a significant contribution to the exposure of a wider audience to works that are in many

cases difficult to obtain or inaccessible due to the language barrier. Although not two scholars on fascism would have agreed on what an appropriate shortlist of relevant works should embody and exclude, the difficult choices that Gregor has made in the composition of his reader are sound and the omissions (which the author himself acknowledges in the introduction) are understandably inevitable. No reader can ever aspire to be the definitive anthology of sources on a subject, however narrow or well-defined. Therefore, Gregor’s volume is an especially welcomed and valuable resource for anyone interested in National Socialism and fascism in general, reflecting the growing popularity of both the study of fascism and the genre of the reader itself.

Nadine Gurr & Benjamin Cole - The New Face of Terrorism: Threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction, London: I.B. Tauris, 2000, 308 pp., GBP 14.95, ISBN 1-8606-4460-0 (pbk).

Reviewed by Gavin Cameron (Salford University) The New Face of Terrorism adds to the already over-crowded field of books dealing with the possibility that terrorists might use weapons of mass destruction. As such, the book’s biggest challenge is to provide "value added" to the best previous works such as Jessica Stern’s The Ultimate Terrorists (Harvard, 1999) or Falkenrath, Newman and Thayer’s America's Achilles Heel (MIT, 1998). Unfortunately, this is an objective that is not achieved. Instead, Gurr and Cole have produced a highly readable synthesis of previous books on the subject but, regrettably, one that has little to add that is new. Given that the book was written in 2000, it is certainly unfair to judge it harshly from a post-September 11 perspective, but this does not prevent the book from appearing stale and unable to provide a fresh perspective.

The authors do, however, succeed in providing a solid overview of most of the key issues, one that could serve as a helpful introduction to the subject. They deal not only with the technical and motivational aspects of the topic, the standard repertoire of the genre, but also with the instrumental incentives and constraints on terrorists’ actions to an extent that is unusual. The authors therefore consider both the internal group dynamics, such as psychology or organisation, and the external factors that might influence a group’s decision to seek mass destructive weapons for terrorism. They also assess the feasibility and technical difficulty of acquiring, weaponising and delivering such a device, although Gurr and Cole are more spotty here: their discussion of biological weapons, for example, is notably less assured than that for nuclear weapons. The authors sometimes display disappointingly uncritical analysis, such as where they discuss the Internet as a source of information for

chemical and biological weapons but fail to assess the quality of the information as well as its quantity. Beyond discussing politics and religion as motivations for mass destructive terrorism, the authors also consider the role of state-sponsorship as a potential facilitator or instigator of such attacks.

The book concludes not only with a threat assessment of the likelihood of mass destructive terrorism, but also a discussion of the efficacy of countermeasures to reduce the probability and mitigate the consequences of such an attack. The authors also suggest that undermining the root causes of terrorism might be a means of lessening the likelihood of such high-impact attacks, although they are realistic about the prospects of success in dealing with terrorists seeking zero-sum gains.

The New Face of Terrorism contains a number of errors that are unimportant in their own right, but are indicative of sloppy fact-checking or editing. For example, "Monterey" is consistently spelled "Monterrey", the date that the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed is given as 1974 (p.8) and the US bombing of the al-Shifa facility in Sudan is dated as 1999 (p.61) rather than the previous year.

One of the greatest problems with this book is the lack of an index, severely limiting the book’s value as a source of academic reference. It remains unclear at which audience the book is directed. Highly readable and intrinsically a competent synthesis of previous work on the subject, the book seems best suited to interested members of the public. It has little obvious contribution to the policy or academic debate on terrorist use of mass destructive weapons. Given the lack of an index and the book’s occasional unreliability, assigning it to students also appears problematical.

In conclusion, The New Face of Terrorism is well-written, deals with an important issue in a competent and even-handed manner and, importantly given the subject, does so in a non-alarmist way. Although seldom providing a new perspective, as an accessible synthesis of previous work on the subject the book is a reasonable addition to the literature.

Douglas R. Holmes, Integral Europe: Fast-Capitalism, Multiculturalism, Neofascism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000, 253 pp., USD 17.95/GBP 11.50, ISBN 0-691-05089-9 (pbk) / USD 55.00/GBP 35.00, ISBN 0-691-03388-9 (hbk).

Reviewed by Stephen Goward (Oxford Brookes University)

Central to Holmes’ fascinating enquiry into the nature and history of radical integralist politics is his background and experience as an anthropologist.

From the outset, Holmes’ sense of ideology as an expression of human community underpins what is both a scholarly and thoroughly engaging exploration of diverse movements and structures. Holmes’ methodology draws strongly on anthropological and sociological research, particularly the way in which he consistently locates his writing within the physical reality of his research locale. Thus he grounds discussion and analysis of liberal Europeanism and British neo-fascism in the respective geographical environs of Brussels and the Isle of Dogs – a stylistic technique as effective as it is simple. The strength of Holmes’ qualitative methodology is further in evidence in the broad range of detailed interviews which are included in the text. Again, Holmes demonstrates the anthropologist’s fascination with the human subject behind the political phenomenon.

By adopting an interdisciplinary approach to his project, one which draws upon a range of socio-political methodologies and perspectives, Holmes illustrates the pressing need for a diversification of analytical approaches generally, particularly with respect to the radical right. His research emphasises the increasing complexity of the radical right in its movement towards an emergent model of ethnocratic integralism. Importantly, Holmes appreciates the value of understanding his subjects as they express themselves in their own terms. By doing so he avoids the pitfalls of oversimplification and underestimation which characterise many previous (notably Marxist) analyses of the radical right, and enables integralism to function as an effective conceptual bridge.

Holmes’ research places radical right ideology within the context of a utopian model of social democracy (the European Union) which has been subverted by the impulses of fast-capitalism and multiculturalism, phenomena that he describes as "antagonistic to the constructivist tradition of the European project". In a compelling analysis, Holmes demonstrates how the deterioration of humanist principles at the core of social modernism has created space for the development of a powerful form of neo-fascist integralism.

In his conclusion, Holmes describes the "unsettling potential of [integralist] politics to join, fuse, merge and synthesize" disparate elements into a potentially powerful political force that defies both definition and opposition. In response to this challenge, Holmes employs a mode of analysis which is itself both sophisticated and synthetic, and which opens integralism to the reader.

Not only is this a fascinating work, but it makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of extremism within the context of neo-liberal globalism.

Richard Iton, Solidarity Blues: Race, Culture, And The American Left, Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000, 335 pp., USD 55.00, ISBN 0-807-82536-0 (hbk) / USD 18.95, ISBN 0-807-84847-6 (pbk).

Reviewed by Donald P. Haider-Markel (University of Kansas) Richard Iton focuses his detail-packed Solidarity Blues on the notion of American exceptionalism. He makes use of archival research to examine the question of why the American political left has never enjoyed political power that left-wing movements have enjoyed in much of the industrialized West.

Most of Iton’s book rests on the notion that American exceptionalism and the weakness of the American left is partly a result of the heterogeneity of American society, but especially because of enduring racial divisions.

Although Iton does discuss contributing factors to the American Left’s weakness, such as cultural divisions over the role of women and a political culture that emphasizes the individual over the collective, he intends to demonstrate that scholars have played down the key role of race.

Furthermore, he contributes to the academic discussion by providing evidence that both black and white leaders (leftist and non-leftist) contributed to making race a weakening force for the American Left.

Chapter 1 introduces Iton’s thesis and outlines the rest of the book. In chapter 2 Iton examines the formation and evolution of major labor unions, including the International Workers of the World (IWW), the American Federation of Labor, and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. He establishes that most of these unions had official national policies that did not discriminate on the basis of race, but statements of national and local union leaders, as well as the practices of union locals demonstrated otherwise. Furthermore, although many union leaders understood that business could use African Americans as a source of non-unionized cheap labor and as strike breakers, they generally refused to end discriminatory practices in union locals. Many unions even went so far as to explicitly push for state and national policies that restricted Asian immigration and citizenship (such as the Chinese Restriction Act of 1882), as well as the ability of Asian immigrants to work. Ironically, such behavior appears to have contributed to the lack of class-consciousness among the broader American working-class, and subsequently reduced the likelihood of political mobilization based on class.

The chapter on Southern politics explores how American political parties in the post-Civil War era addressed the race issue, with a particular focus on farleft parties such as the People’s Party, the Socialist Party, and the Communist

Party. Iton argues that although the SP and CP were more inclusive in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity than any other American parties, they still struggled with these issues, often sending mixed messages. Further, African American leaders clearly often felt used by parties such as the CP, and therefore never fully supported these third party movements. Nevertheless, their relatively significant efforts to be racially inclusive provided fodder to opponents on the right, who argued these parties hoped to undermine American capitalism. Arguments from the right became all the more powerful during the 1917 Red Scare and the second, more pervasive Red Scare of the 1950s. Images of the African American underclass aligning with socialists and communists made white recruitment difficult and insured these parties could make little headway in the South.

Chapters 4 and 5 examine the politics of the New Deal as a political coalition and a policy program. Iton disagrees with the notion that the New Deal coalition was ever as strong as many scholars have suggested. Indeed, the inherent weakness of the alliance between liberal Northern Democrats and conservative Southern Democrats was always tenuous, in part because they differed on key issues such as unionization, but particularly because the differences on race forced compromises on political strategy and policy. Even New Deal social welfare policies, often seen as a key victory for the American Left, were compromised to limit the access of blacks to program benefits. As the programs developed through the 1960s, black access became greater, but so too did the demonization of those using social welfare programs. As the demonization of welfare recipients increased in the 1980s and 1990s, elected officials were persuaded to reduce benefits and alter program parameters.

Iton extends this discussion of race and policy formation and implementation to health care and voting laws. Finally, Iton concludes with a chapter on race in popular culture and a broader discussion of alternative explanations for the weakness of the American Left.

Although rich in detail, his writing style is at times dense, making it less accessible to the average undergraduate. However, upper-division undergraduates and graduate students shouldn’t find the text too taxing. The book could be used as a central text in courses on race or the American Left, but most instructors would likely use it as a supplemental text. Beyond the classroom I would recommend the book for American politics, comparative politics, and left-wing politics scholars. Although the impact of race on American politics has frequently been noted, this book does a good job synthesizing previous arguments and observations, and directly illustrating the impact on the development of the American Left in a coherent manner.

Francisco Letamendia, Game of Mirrors: Centre-Periphery National Conflicts, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000, 370 pp., GBP 45.00, ISBN 0-75461361-5 (hbk).

Reviewed by Margarita Gomez-Reino (Universidad de Salamanca) Letamendia is both known for his role as defence lawyer in the Burgos trial (which gives him first-hand knowledge on the subject) and for his academic work on Basque radical nationalism. His book, Game of Mirrors, was published in Spanish in 1997.

The first part of the book is divided into nine chapters, which aim to provide a comprehensive view of nationalisms, both state and peripheral. It also includes chapters on the welfare state and European integration and peripheral nationalism. The second part of the book is dedicated to nationalisms and violence, with chapters aiming to cover all scenarios under the categories of state violence and response violence (from the periphery).

Letamendia’s central thesis is the idea of the mirror image between state nationalism and peripheral nationalism. His argument applies both to the development of peripheral nationalism as a response to state activities, and to the development of violent conflict, also in his model a response to state activities. For Letamendia, "the peripheral reactive movements mimetise the process of creation carried out by the nation-state of the national community (Gemeinschaft) and, on occasion, of the national society (Gesellschaft)" (p.3).

Moreover, this applies to violence as well. His argument involves the identification of an armed group of the periphery and what he defines as the legitimating community as the nucleus of a group-state that mirrors the nation-state.

Beyond the question of mirrors or mimesis between the state and the ‘ethnic group’, Letamendia emphasises two issues that need special attention. First, he problematises the relationship between systemic (institutionalised) and anti-system nationalism to explain the development of this type of conflict.

Second, he identifies the issue of the relationship between the armed group and the legitimating community. Both, I think, are crucial to understanding the dynamic of conflict in the Basque country. Especially the latter aims at an understanding of the sources and legitimacy of violence in the Basque country in the framework of the organisations around ETA. However, none of these questions are sufficiently developed, given the width and scope of the book.

To prove his case, Letamendia introduces a theoretical framework that aims to synthesise different approaches, and a comparative framework to put the Basque case in perspective. The analytical framework combines centreperiphery framework, elite mobilisation and social movement theory. This is an ambitious effort to produce a general theory of centre-periphery conflicts on a global scale. The author not only uses Rokkan´s cleavages but also new social movement theory (frame alignment) to explain mobilisation in the peripheries. Reactive ethnic groups are singled out by a set of identity markers. For Letamendia, they operate at three levels identity domain, ideological domain and instrumental domain although he treats the first two together. (p.79).

The comparative exercise to put the Basque case in perspective is quite problematic. The format of the book aims to separate the cases from the theoretical exercise. Letamendia aims to exhaust the array of cases in the peripheries but a logic for the comparison is absent. To support his thesis Letamendia needed cases of non-violent conflict. In fact, Letamendia chooses to discuss the Basque case as part of other cases of political violence in the West and in a global setting. He distinguishes between horizontal (West) and vertical (Third world) societies within peripheral nationalism. His knowledge of the cases varies and some presented cases are rather weak (e.g., Italy and Flanders).

The most controversial issues surrounding Basque radical nationalism emerged here and there in the arguments, the concepts and the words used.

On page 121, for instance, discussing the question of racism and nationalism, Letamendia considers that they lack the virulence of the racism which emerges in the centre. However, we do not have empirical evidence that proves this, nor do we know why this is the case. It is also a question of semantics, for instance in the position taken on political violence or terrorism.

"Can the political violence practised by nationalist groups be defined as terrorism? An affirmative response is always the case in the heart of public opinion in nation-states. On the other hand, for the legitimating community of the armed groups, which is often much smaller in number than the former, it is about a struggle for national liberation. In the core of the state, the negative interpretation of the term "terrorism", identified with what is intolerable and inexcusable entirely fulfils its performative function; there is no room for compromise or neutral ground between the majority that condemns and the minority that approves of violence (p.217).

Letamendia identifies four phases of violent nationalist mimesis. The first phase is the production of social violence, the second the appearance of an

armed group, while the third and fourth phases develop simultaneously (the transformation of the armed group into a group-state that imitates the state, and the formation of a nationalist community which legitimates the groupstate). He finishes with an optimistic chapter on the end of violence which is a pledge to a better future since today violence is still part of the picture of political conflict. Unfortunately the book is not updated and thus, we miss the impact of important changes in the conflict of Northern Ireland, of the end of the truce in the Basque country and its aftermath, and of the current Palestinian developments, to name but a few.

Ihekwoaba D. Onwudiwe, The Globalization of Terrorism, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001, 190 pp., GBP 37.50, ISBN 0-7546-1095-0 (hbk).

Reviewer: Daniel S. Gressang (Joint Military Intelligence College, Washington) (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.)

The title conjures images of terrorist organizations operating without regard to national borders, spanning the globe in ways unseen until recently. It seems to suggest an evolutionary nature to terrorism, away from more parochial concerns towards global interests and demands. It appears to be a perfect companion piece to events in the wake of September 11.

The core of Onwudiwe’s argument is the contention that the structural legacy of colonialism and oppression creates and maintains the necessary systemic factors leading to and promoting terrorism. Terrorist violence is an inevitable reaction to political, military, cultural, and economic oppression. The systematic injustices associated with colonialism, neocolonialism, and imperialism form the foundation of Onwudiwe’s structural perspective in which he attempts to use Fanon’s theory of violence and World System Theory (WST) to show that terrorism is a reaction to exploitation. WST, the author explains, assumes there is a single global economic system within which states, and terrorists, are constituent units. Readers new to the subject will likely find this approach an interesting and useful one in that it addresses the phenomenon from a much broader perspective than most other works. For more experienced students of terrorism, Onwudiwe offers more questions than answers. He acknowledges that a universally acceptable definition of terrorism is unlikely and suggests this stems from the fact that the powerful have the ability to label. That power manifests itself in defining terrorism, to

the detriment of actors from peripheral and semi-peripheral states, delegitimizing those struggling for equality.

Onwudiwe correctly suggests the power to define shapes analysis and response, and the power to label is the power to define context. But it is an argument fraught with pitfalls. In this case, the author seems more concerned with labels than with terrorism’s causes. Indeed, the author notes that "when we speak of the ideology of terrorism, we cannot speak solely of the terrorist’s own ideology. We must also investigate the ideology of those who label terrorism and terrorists" (p. 44). As important as understanding the label is, that says more about how we see terrorism and less about the causes.

In a similar fashion, the use of WST to examine terrorism is problematic.

Arguing that "[a] complete knowledge of WST is essential to the understanding of global theories of criminality, criminal behavior, and terrorism" (p. 63), the author says his approach is quite simple: terrorist violence is the direct result of inequalities created and maintained by the core’s oppression of semi-peripheral and peripheral states. Such an argument, however, does not offer adequate explanations for terrorists who emerged in core states and Onwudiwe does little to address this. WST is an interesting supposition worthy of examination, but the compelling evidence is not offered. Providing a nice summary and explanation of WST and dependency theory, Onwudiwe does not make a compelling argument for the necessary association between WST, dependence, and terrorism.

Onwudiwe’s analytic framework seems to force him toward conclusions not supported by the evidence. In seeking to explain why there has been so little terrorism in West Africa, for example, Onwudiwe asserts: "Traditionalism (the doctrines or practices of those who follow or accept tradition) is unique to Africans because it links Africans to their pre-colonial past and maintains the dominance of roots. Traditionalists oppose radicalism and even modernism, and if change is to occur it must respond fully to the lessons of the past.

Terrorism in the WS is a radical departure from African values" (p. 79).

Focusing on the supply of weapons by core states, he asserts, for example, that "by supplying weapons of violence to poor countries, a structure of violence and oppression, which undermines economic progress, political participation . . . is created" (p. 77) which foster terrorist violence. West African countries, by tradition, "do not participate in international terrorism. . . .", even though "West African countries are not immune from engaging in terrorism." (p.77)

Onwudiwe’s data does not seem wholly adequate for his intended purposes.

Using the RAND Chronology of International Terrorism for 1987, the author claims this year offers the most complete and accurate data available. Yet a cursory glance at various datasets, including RAND’s, gives one the sense that much of the world’s terrorism ebbs and flows with national and world events. Onwudiwe’s use of 1987 data prevents him from incorporating this vital information into his study and prevents him from incorporating an understanding of the growth and evolution of terrorism in the years since 1987.

Other analytic limitations appear, such as recognition of media biases, but are largely ignored. These limitations raise questions about the ability to generalize beyond the three case studies offered – the United States, USSR, and Cameroon. At times it seems that the author injects his perspectives and biases into the assessment, then draws conclusions from those perspectives and opinions. He seems, one might conclude, to examine the adequacy and consistency of the labels applied to terrorism more than he examines the causes of terrorism.

Victor Roudometof, Nationalism, Globalization, and Orthodoxy: The Social Origins of Ethnic Conflict in the Balkans, London and Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001, 320 pp., USD 69.95, ISBN 0-313-31949-9 (pbk).

Reviewed by Eric Gordy (Clark University) Formally, this excellent study applies globalization theory to explain the development and success of nationalist movements in the Balkans at the end of the Ottoman period. Politically, it sets out to disprove the popular eschatology-in-reverse which argues that ethnic nationalism and religious hatred represent a natural product of the region.

The most persuasive parts of the research concern the role played by international trade in transforming social relations and urban life in Ottoman Europe. Roudometof traces the emergence of conflict between Christian and Muslim elites in the Empire to the expansion of trade in the nineteenth century, which produced a largely Orthodox urban mercantile elite in close contact with the remainder of Europe. This group confronted an exclusively Muslim political elite which was largely unwilling to relinquish its monopoly over bureaucratic power--so while members of one millet increasingly controlled the economy, members of another largely lived off the civil service.

This competition generated a variety of proposals for political reform of the Empire. Roudometof gives considerable attention to nineteenth century movements which pursued federalism and "transnational citizenship" as ways of transforming the Ottoman Empire. Whether "Greco-Ottoman," pan-Slavic, pan-South-Slavic or "Ottomanist" efforts, they generally concentrated on formalizing political power to correspond with the economic ascendancy of the Christian millet. Crucially, even those movements which were primarily religious in orientation were not ethnically nationalist in the sense that they projected the dominance of a single group ("Greco-Ottomanism," which defined all Orthodox Christians as Greek, may be an exception, although a similar definition was current throughout Europe at the time). National ideologies did not emerge until these federal projects failed, and the first states to achieve independence from the Ottoman Empire, Greece and Serbia, sought noneconomic rationales for their expansion.

The Orthodox hierarchy did not go along with national projects willingly. As an Ottoman political institution, the Patriarchate had a political interest in the survival of the empire, and as designated tax collectors, local ecclesiastical authorities had economic interests. Although the conflict has been noted by earlier historians (Stavrianos among others), Roudometof provides valuable material on the devolution of ecclesiastical authority from the Patriarchate in Istanbul to national churches from 1830 onward, and the rounds of excommunications which followed the debates.

Nor did the peasantry willingly participate in nationalist projects of territorial expansion. By identifying the state as a sphere of economic interest with urban and military elites as its clients, Roudometof successfully traces projects of state expansion to interest-group politics, and points out the continuity between Ottoman and local nationalist styles of rule. The study usefully points out the basic continuity between the reliance of urban elites on the expansion of state power in the Ottoman and Communist periods.

Roudometof's general thesis has concrete applications for studies of contemporary nationalism in the region. As a result of 1) the Ottoman Empire’s inability to make political adjustments to social and economic change in the nineteenth century, and 2) the efforts of nationalist intellectuals in the Balkans to emulate European models of romantic nationalism, the region generated states which legitimated themselves according to criteria of nationality rather than citizenship. This led to continuous territorial conflict, to the inability of states to find a viable model for assuring the political participation of minorities, and to the current inability of the region to integrate into a world system which is increasingly citizenship-based, economically

decentralised and multicultural. Roudometof ends the study with a call for the formation of regional blocs and an analysis of the obstacles to their formation.

It may seem unfair to criticize such a valuable contribution for failing to be comprehensive. Nonetheless, there are some missing pieces which could point the way for future research. The most important of these concerns is the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, toward which the research is implicitly directed. Roudometof is correct in pointing out that "Yugoslavism" was the only "federalist" program to be implemented. But it was not implemented in the way foreseen by its Serbian or Croatian proponents. One of the chief complications has to do with the imposition of a uniform system on territories with widely differing imperial experience. Accounting for this fully would require a broad comparison of Ottoman and Habsburg imperial policy, which Roudometof does not conduct. Clearly his expertise is in the Ottoman period, which likely accounts both for this geographic limitation and for the cursory treatment of most of the twentieth century.

Similarly, some passages on the effects of nationalist rule seem overly generalized. This is particularly evident in the characterization of the "ethnic cleansing" of Macedonia, Thrace and Bulgaria as normal for the period, and in the treatment of the Armenian genocide as falling "beyond the scope" of the analysis of the nationalization of Anatolia. However, Roudometof rightly points to the unwillingness of international groups such as the League of Nations to address grievances when they were presented.

Whatever the study may lack in exhaustiveness, however, it compensates with a provocative theoretical approach and a solid demonstration of the power of "multidimensional" analysis. It is a fundamental source for people seeking serious explanations for the rise of nationalism in the Balkans.

Clyde Wilcox, Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right in American Politics, Boulder, CO: Westview, 2nd edition, 2000, 200 pp., USD 17.00/GBP 12.99, ISBN 0-8133-2697-4 (pbk).

Reviewed by Carolyn Gallaher (American University) Clyde Wilcox’s second edition of Onward Christian Soldiers? is a solid, well presented, and superbly organized review of one of the most influential social movements of our time. His measured account of the Christian Right fills an important lacuna in the literature on new social movements. It also provides a useful text for professors who want to incorporate studies of right wing

movements into courses on social movements, religion and politics, and social change.

One of the key strengths in Wilcox’s analysis is his thorough contextualization of the Christian right. He rightly begins his analysis by outlining the contours of the movement, describing its core constituents and overviewing its primary issues of concern. Wilcox also provides rich detail on the movement’s historical context, which is vital for understanding its raison d’être today. The inset box on the infamous Scopes "monkey trial", for example, lends texture and vibrancy to the discussion of evangelicals’ sense of difference from ‘the world’. Wilcox is also careful to categorize the various waves of Christian activism during the twentieth century, charting both the points of continuity running through them as well as the moments of difference between them. As astutely observed, today’s movement is distinct from its predecessors in both the scope of its involvement in the political realm, and its subsequent effect therein.

The author is also to be lauded for the measured tone he sets in the book’s preface and maintains throughout the book. Wilcox grew up in a fundamentalist family in rural West Virginia, and he recounts his coming of age there fondly. Yet, Wilcox also describes himself as at war with his roots.

While personal involvement in a topic of study does not guarantee sensitivity or insight into it, in Wilcox’s case it clearly does. Indeed, he goes to great lengths to address and debunk traditional approaches to fundamentalism that dismiss adherents as ‘irrational’ or prone to personality disorders. His insistence on being fair is important because stereotypical and dismissive presentations of social movements not only obscure our understanding of them but may also reinforce the political disenfranchisement that drives many of them in the first place.

In the final chapter Wilcox also goes to great lengths to present the positive aspects of the movement, even though he admits that he "opposes most of the policy goals of the Christian Right" (p. 156). He persuasively argues that the Christian Right’s activism forces Americans to consider which values should drive our public policy. And, I agree with him when he argues that the Christian Right’s activism serves as a clarion call (albeit an unintended one) for those with dissenting views to argue more forcefully for "competing values, such as social justice, equality, and personal liberation" (p. 156).

As I read Wilcox’s presentation of the negative aspects of the Christian Right, however, I could not help but wonder why his discussion seemed somehow inadequate, especially when compared with the rich detail and analysis

presented elsewhere in the book. To be fair, Wilcox devotes equal space to his discussion of the movement’s positive and negative aspects. He is also careful to highlight the limits to debate that Christian Right moral certitude presents. And, he rightly identifies the movement’s willingness to deny basic civil liberties to certain groups as troubling. However, given the fact that the Christian Right is now actively engaged in politics, and that its politics seek to deprive many of basic rights and dignity, it seems reasonable to consider the negative impacts in greater depth.

It is here that I think Wilcox’s review of the movement could benefit from an inclusion of postmodernist approaches to the Christian Right that focus on the dynamics of gender, race, and sexuality in its politics. Indeed, a more thorough contextualization of the Christian Right relative to left oriented social movements would help to explain the movement’s desire to ‘discipline’ certain segments of the population, most notably women and homosexuals whose social gains are viewed as threatening to male hegemony.

Reviewing the small, but important literature on the movement from Marxists and other political economists would also be helpful. Globalization is an important contextual backdrop to the emergence of today’s Christian Right, and it plays a role in fostering activism among the movement’s core constituents who are, as Wilcox notes, generally less well off than their secular counterparts. Reviewing these studies in more depth is important because class based tensions are increasingly important in the movement.

Pat Buchanan and other popular activists in the movement have, for example, called on politicians to support protectionist economic policies, and many have made strong overtures to ‘working families’, as Buchanan did in his last two presidential campaigns. Moreover, by laying bare the class based tensions stirring within the movement, we are directed to consider how at least some adherents might be mobilized, and to better effect.

Overall, however, Wilcox’s book is a strong and much needed addition to the study of right wing social movements, in general, and of the Christian Right more specifically. Its readability makes it an excellent choice for a textbook or as a general primer for anyone interested to get a handle on the complexities of a large and influential movement. We can only hope Wilcox will continue to update and revise his book as time goes on.

Ruth Wodak and Teun A. van Dijk (eds.), Racism at the Top. Parliamentary Discourses on Ethnic Issues in Six European States, Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava/Austrian Federal Ministry of Education,

Science and Culture, 2000, 392 pp., ÖS 482 / DM 66 / SFR 60, ISBN 385435-334-0 (pbk).

Reviewed by Paul Statham (University of Leeds) This latest output from the Wodak/van Dijk stable attempts to extend their own very particular brand of discourse analysis in the ethnic relations field, firstly, by producing a volume that covers six different countries, and secondly, by focusing on parliamentary debates instead of the usual suspect of news media as a source of racism. In principle, both of these are noble aims. Crossnational comparison can contribute much original insight particularly when based on a data-set drawn in a systematic way. In addition, political elites are undoubtedly important actors, both in selecting the social problems that achieve attention and in shaping the ideological terrain through which they become understood and mediated through society. This last extension is particularly welcome since it counters the impression given by traditional van Dijkian style discourse analysis, that journalists and media institutions are the most important ‘producers’ of racist discourse in society, and not simply the messengers who report on the events of a society founded on a set of social relationships and understandings that produce racist outcomes.

Unfortunately for van Dijk/Wodak, the contributions to this volume simply serve to underline the conceptual and analytic limitations of this brand of discourse analysis in studying ethnic relations. The attempt to introduce a cross comparative dimension simply does not work, because ‘racism’ is found wherever the approach looks for it, thus there are no constructed categories that enable any meaningful cross-national comparison. Thus politicians in all the countries are racists, and those on the right, more racist than the left. One is left wondering what might be the dynamics of change in such a uniform situation.

Instead of using discourse analysis to study the speech strategies of certain politicians and attributing to these a general societal importance, it would be far more interesting to trace the origins of the very clear national differences in the different languages and ways of understanding immigration and ethnic relations issues in European countries. In my opinion one should be studying the relationships between discourses and the institutional frameworks which they legitimate and support, and not how individual politicians talk in Parliament (which is after all a ‘staged’ confrontational form of debate that is in real terms some distance from the corridors of power). At the level of crossnational comparison the different languages and terms of categorisation for migrants – e.g. Ausländer (‘foreigners’) in Germany, immigrés(‘immigrants’) in

France, ‘ethnic and racial minorities’ in the UK -- are clearly derived from the different ways of attributing citizenship by European states, as has been made clear by many scholars in the field. Simply to flatten these differences in ideological terrain and replace them with a crusade against racism ‘writ large’ serves in fact to obscure their very potential for being challenged. It would be difficult for example, to conceive how this type of research could explain how the recent change in citizenship legislation in Germany could even come about. It would simply show that German politicians were racist both before and after. In doing so it would miss the transformation of the political context, which in fact has changed the material and symbolic opportunities available to second and third generation Turks to participate in the German society where most of them were born.

Given the conceptual inadequacies of the analytic framework that they have been given several of the authors stick to the task well of bashing out their individual country cases. This may be of interest therefore for people who are studying one of the countries, and want to pick up on a flavour of the Parliamentary debate on immigration. None the less the text is difficult to read in a sustained way as it resembles the unevenness of a research report. At times, it becomes difficult to see the ‘wood for the trees’ of the argument as we are treated to illustrative example after illustrative example of alleged Parliamentary racism, without any alternative explanations thrown in. The reader is then left do any cross-national interpretation pretty much alone.

This deficit becomes most apparent in Wodak’s extremely poor comparative conclusions. This section is not only badly constructed, but even presents the data in a way which makes it clear that it is meaningless. For example, there is a very general cross-national table on subjects of parliamentary debates in the six countries, whereas Austria has examples in all ten categories, the Netherlands has examples in only four, France and Britain in two, and Italy in one (Spain is even omitted from the table!). This categorisation tells us nothing other than it was most likely the Austrian team that developed the category system for the coding system, and that little effort was made to find cross-national equivalents.

The key problem with the conceptual approach sponsored by this book is that it turns racism into a constant feature of western societies rather than a variable to be explained. Nonetheless, even within the limited terms of the analytic approach sponsored by the editors of this volume, the outcome is a shoddy and unconvincing job. This is one for hard core believers only!