European Journal of Political Research

BENNETT, COLIN J.

doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1988.tb00163.xpmid: N/A

Abstract. The introduction of information technology to governmental agencies has raised considerable concern for the erosion of personal privacy in most advanced democratic states. This article compares and tries to explain the choice of policy instrument in four key countries (Sweden, the United States, West Germany and the United Kingdom) to enforce the protection of personal data. Five options were available from the ‘international repertoire’ of solutions: voluntary control, subject control, licensing, a data commissioner and registration. The Swedes opted for licensing, the Americans rely on subject control, the Germans established a data commissioner and the British chose a registration scheme. In no state, however, were these decisions made from a synoptic analysis of all possible options. Nor did a process of policy diffusion occur. Rather, a combination of domestic constraints seemed to filter out unacceptable options and produce a bias in favour of the resulting policy instrument. In the United States and Sweden, this bias resulted from perceived constitutional imperatives; in West Germany and Britain, the position and power of the respective national bureaucracies produced stiff resistance, a conflictual policy process and resulting policy instruments with few, if any, precedents in their respective systems.

COLEMAN, WILLIAM; GRANT, WYN

doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1988.tb00164.xpmid: N/A

Abstract. This article utilizes an internationally comparative data set to examine the potentiality of comprehensive business associations to define and articulate the interests of business as a whole. We argue that the organizational structures of comprehensive associations ‐ the degree to which they integrate diverse interest areas and they compete with one another‐ are critical to the degree of probable influence gained in a given country. Using data from seven countries ‐ Austria. Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom ‐ a concept of business cohesion is constructed based on these structural properties. Having differentiated among the countries in terms of the cohesion of business associations, we then relate these differences to variations in the participation of associations in the formulation and implementation of public policy.

UNDERHILL, GEOFFREY R.D.

doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1988.tb00165.xpmid: N/A

Abstract. The case of the French textile and clothing industry during the post‐1974 crisis period illustrates a number of issues relevant to the debate about meso‐corporatism and interest intermediation at the sectoral level in industry. It highlights the importance of attempts to understand the relationships between organised interests and the state in the analysis of the policy process. The pattern of state‐industry relations which evolved was crucial in determining the outcome of conflict between state and industry over the management of restructuring during the crisis. The inapplicability of the meso‐corporatist model to this case becomes clear. There was a conspicuous absence of either political exchange or a shared policy agenda, each an important element of corporatist patterns of policy formation, in both the formation and implementation of adjustment policies in the sector. Mutual suspicion and a struggle to control the terms of the debate yielded a low level of co‐operation. Eventually the industry was able to appropriate increased public funds on its own terms and to insist on a protective trade regime. The complexity of the case points to the need to broaden the debate over models of interest intermediation and to relate it to issues in political economy. This is particularly important with regard to the structure of the bureaucratic state and notions of state autonomy.

ANDERSEN, SVEIN S.

doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1988.tb00166.xpmid: N/A

Abstract. The limited literature on offshore industrial relations in Britain and Norway has focused on the deviant nature of such arrangements compared to national traditions. The ‘newness’ of the sector and the special nature of the oil industry have been used to explain the deviance. This study, instead, controls for such factors and shows how contrasting patterns of adaptation can be related to system properties. Industrial relations in the two countries can be viewed as ideal‐type approximations of pluralism and societal corporatism. Within the tradition contrasting pluralism and neocorporatism, the dominant perspective has deliberately excluded cultural aspects, stressing instead structural form. The article argues for the reintroduction of culture and shows how British and Norwegian offshore developments reflect fundamentally different orientations towards industrial relations. Culture is not, however, conceptualized as ideosyncratic characteristics of the two countries. It stems instead from different histories of labour‐capital relations.

RASMUSSEN, JORGEN

doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1988.tb00167.xpmid: N/A

Abstract. The initial speeches of MPs entering the British House of Commons from 1966 to 1970 were analyzed to ascertain the extent to which they complied with the prevailing myth of behaviour appropriate for maiden speeches. Rituals of style ‐ hesitancy, brevity, and humility ‐were challenged more sharply than were those of substance ‐ references to one's predecessor and one's constituency and being non‐contentious. Despite widespread violation of the various norms, few new MPs defied the folkways across the board. Although a new breed of MP ‐ young, well‐educated, and professionally oriented ‐ was entering the Commons at this time, such MPs did not prove to be the principal source of challenges to the folkways. Iconoclastic MPs tended to have less durable careers than did those MPs more acceptant of tradition. But neither Labour nor Conservatives penalized deviants by denying them positions in the Government. In the absence of sanctions, new Members complied with the myth only when the code of acceptable behaviour appeared to help the Commons function effectively and when new Members were not being singled out for discriminatory treatment.

CHAFFEE, LYMAN

doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1988.tb00168.xpmid: N/A

Abstract. Mass communication is multi‐dimensional. One often overlooked alternative medium of mass communication, when it is systematic and not random, is public art ‐ murals, graffiti, wall painting and posters. The linking of art and politics has precedents in Basque culture. It is the thesis of this article that public art is an important factor in the political communication process in the Basque region, that Basque nationalists, especially radical Basques revolving around the ETA movement, have used public art as one source for increasing visibility, raising consciousness, and building a mass based movement. What is particular about Basque nationalism is that it is a cultural‐political movement, a reawakening from a ‘culture of silence’ induced by the Franco regime. Today, public art is an accepted channel for communicating the gamut of socio‐political issues relevant to the social conflict in the Basque homeland.

MACKIE, THOMAS T.

doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.1988.tb00169.xpmid: N/A