( SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL)

Volume 51 / Number 1 / March 1997 • 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019

Items 50th Anniversary, March 1947-March 1997

In its 50 years of existence, Items has had only three editors. Eleanor Isbell, a demogra­pher who came to the Council in 1940 became the fir t editor in 1947. David L. Sills, a ociolo­gist, took over the publication in 1974 shortly before her retire-

ment, and when Mr. Sills retired in 1988, Gloria Kirchheimer, a wri ter/translator, took his place as editor. Items has undergone surpris­ingly few changes in this half century. There have been periodic discussions along the nature of "Whither Items?" and attempts to define it-Is it a house organ, schol­arly journal, hybrid? All or none of the

above? The debate will probably continue well into the next century.

The most dramatic changes have been graphic and technical. Items was redesigned with the September 1989 issue and by the December 1990 issue, the new Councillogo was added to its front page. As recently as 1994, Items was still being typeset, character by character, albeit no longer in "hot type" but rather electronically. In the early 1990 material was occa­sionally provided to the printer on disk but because of incompatibility of sy terns, thi wa not alway an expedient olution. In late 1994, the SSRC acquired a desktop publishing system with all its accompanying bells and whistle and was able to produce the jour­nal-and all other SSRC publications-inhouse. Now, Items also appears online (http://www. rc.org).

An index of Items articles is in preparation.

• CONTENTS OF TmS ISSUE •

Items SOth Anniversary. Gloria Kirchhtimtr 12 March 1947- March 1997

The Worl. of the. oclnl SCI nee Research Council.

I Current Activities at the Council 15

A T P(/1Jtnb.!~tr (Reprint) The SOCial SCI n e. in Mod rn

ociety. Ptndltfl>n Htrrin.~ (Repnnt)

Pre idential Items: Gradu te Training in Economics- Adding Value, Kenneth Prtwill 3

Democratization Revi ited. Adam Pruworski 6

SSRC Archives Open for Research,

New Staff Appointment 15 Intellectual Capital Initiative

Meeting Economic Governance and

Aexible Production

15

16 First Abe Fellows' Retreat 16 Labor Markets and Equity

in Central America 16 Abe Symposium on Security 17 Japan Studie Di sertation

Workshop 17 Recent Council Publications 20

Hi torieal note

Starting with it founding in 1923 the Social Science Re earch Council has attempted to define it mi ion and that of the ocial' cience in general. Repeatedly the Council' Committee on Problem and Policy recognized the immediacy of important public and ocial problem , while alway making it clear that the Council would not abandon fundamen­tal re earch. World War II inten ified the discu ion of mi ion, leading to the e tabli hment of Items, which included the e ay here reproduced. Though the vocabulary in place ound dated, the key i ue have eldom been 0 well formulated. "The improve­ment of method for under tanding human relation , the development of skill for dealing with ocial

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cure of social ill ... " remain part of the Council' portfolio.

A.T. Poffenberger, a p ychologi t and author of the first article, repre ented the American P ychological A ociation on the SSRC board of directors from 1935 to 1943. From 1944 to 1948 he wa a director­at-large, and chairman of the board from 1946 to 1948. Pendleton Herring, a political cienti t, wa the board member repre enting the American Political Science A ociation from 1946 to 1948, and pre i­dent of the SSRC from 1948 to 1968.

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19 7

VOLUME 51. NUMBER I

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL

VOLUME 1 • NUMBER 1 • MARCH 1947 250 PARK AVENUE· NEW YORK 17, N. Y.

THE WORK OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCil

THE work of the Social Science Research Council can be effective only to the degree that it is known to social scientists. Ultimately what the Council undertakes may be expected to come to the attention of most of those concerned with social research by way of books, pamphlets, journals, and word of mouth. However, such means of communication are slow and uncertain. They are especially inadequate in this period of expansion in the work of the Council made necessary by the unprecedented increase in the de­mand for knowledge of human relations and by the development of new techniques to meet this demand.

Social Science Research Council Items, of which this is the first number, is intended to be a report of current activities of the Council. It has been pre­pared in response to the wishes of many persons con­nected with the Council as well as others throughout the country. The first number is strictly an experi­ment. There are plans to publish the Items quarterly or oftener if it is found to fulfill a need. Statements about Council activities will necessarily be brief, but they can be supplemented where desired by reference to the more detailed Annual" Report.

There is within the Social Science Research Council a growing conviction of an urgent need for clearer understanding of the role of the social sciences on the part of the public and even among social scientists themselves. Two projects are now being conducted under Council sponsorship for the purpose of ad­vancing this understanding. Donald Marquis, Chair­man of the Department of Psychology at the Univer­sity of Michigan, is making an appraisal of the current status of knowledge concerning human and social

by A. T. Poffenberger

relations-in political, economic, and cultural terms­and of the effectiveness with which this knowledge is being applied. Talcott Parsons, Chairman of the De­partment of Social Relations at Harvard University, is preparing a report for the Council's Committee on Fed­eral Government and Research on the social sciences in relation to the national government, with special emphasis on science legislation. A third project, not directly under Council auspices except for fiscal ad­ministration, is a book now being prepared by Stuart Chase on concrete achievements of the social sciences, with particular reference to World War II. This book is designed to give a simple, realistic picture of actual and potential contributions of social science to human welfare. The results of a study of factors affecting the flow of personnel into the social sciences, by Elbridge Sibley, briefly de cribed on page 7 of this issue, will have added significance in the light of the other three studies mentioned. The four projects together should do much to improve public under­standing of the nature, problems, and possibilities of the social sciences.

The scientific quality of the social sciences and the utility of the knowledge they arc accumulating have been much discussed of late, and not infrequently with an appalling lack of information. The Council be­lieves the time has come to further, through systematic surveys, a clarification of current thinking. In gen­eral terms, such surveys should consider the func­tions which the social sciences can discharge within our society, both in relationship to government and within the structure of our educational system. In more specific terms, these surveys should consider the recruit-

ment and traImng of social science personnel, the ad­vancement of basic research in the various social science disciplines and the interrelations of these fields; they should examine methods of application of social science findings and the ventures in ocial engineering that seem most promising of results. They hould also deal with dissemination of knowledge to the general public, and perhaps consider the efficacy of various methods of dissemination such as current media of mass communi­cation. In the reports of these surveys laymen and specialists alike should be able to find, if not the

answers to their questions concerning the nature of the social sciences, at least thoughtful discussion of those questions in the light of the best information now available.

It seems most fitting to introduce this first issue of the Items with a statement concerning the social sciences in modern ociety. It has been adapted from a memorandum reviewing the need for clarification of the place of .the social sciences in national life, sub­mitted by Pendleton Herring to the Council's Com­mittee on Problems and Policy.

THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN MODERN SOCIETY

No RANGE of knowledge is more important today than that leading to a better understanding of social forces and human relationships. It is this knowledge that should enable men to cope with the kmd of world in which we live.

Administrators and other men of action are constantly making decisions affecting the welfare of countless num­bers of their fellow men. Many are WIlling to exact a high co t in social dislocations or violent upheavals if these are required for accomplishment of their ends, be they selfish or altruistic. Their ambitions and the eco­nomic or political propulsions of which they may be but one expression outdistance our apparent human capacity for orderly and constructive adjustment to change. The wastage and suffering in human terms are sometimes enormous. In fact. the quantitative de­gree to which mass destruction and suffering can now be carried gives a new urgency to the reasons for deal­ing with otherwise familiar woes. The phenomena are not new; but their dimensions are. ,\Ve need now more than ever before to perfect our tools for human engi­neering. The improvement of methods for understand­ing human relations, the development of skills for dealing with social forces-the perfecting of tools in these ways-are the business of the social sciences.

Those who attempt to manipulate social relationships even for the best of motives may do so ineffectively and even cruelly. as a result of and in rough proportion to their ignorance concerning the processes in which they are engaged. If the people who are governed are to exercise any influence in the processes of government.

• fr. Herring is an Execulive Associale of the Carnegie Corpo· ralion of New York. Direclor of the United Nations Alomic Energy Commi ion Group. a director of the SSRC. and a member of ilS Committee on Problems and Policy.

2

by Pendleton Herring·

an understanding of political procedures is the first step toward effective participation. The social sciences repre­sent the approach to human relationships that empha­sizes analysis rather than force.

Social scientists are engaged in a quest for under­standing. Their command of data is a powerful means toward better understanding of human relations. For example. the systematic studies of human problems by sociologists and anthropologists open the way to increased knowledge of causal relationships. Psycholo· gists and sociologists are engaged in highly pertinent studies of attitude measurement. Economic research has vastly increased our sophistication concerning the business cycle, price levels. fiscal policy, and industrial relations.

The social sciences are of crucial significance today because we are living in an administered age. Human relationships are now being ordered to a significant extent by a conscious process of decision­making. Philosophically, there is much less reliance than in previous generations upon conceptions of natu­rallaw. In the realm of economic thinking. the trend away from reliance upon automatic controls is marked indeed. For example. we have shifted from reliance upon the gold standard or free international t.rade to the mechanics of a federal reserve system or the machinery of an international bank and varying forms of economic autarchy. In the field of industry, we encounter admin­istered prices and rigidities resulting from cartelization. monopoly. and labor unionization. With respect to social problems, there is much more reliance upon plan­ning and organized philanthropic effort. whether public or private. The mo t striking evidence of the tendency to deal with human problems through organization and responsible decision-making is to be found in govern-

ment. At one extreme we find totalitarian regtmes and. at the other. efforts to determine a wide range of issues through international organization. In our own coun­try the development of associational activities and of bureaucracy is evident to everyone. The uncertainties and controversies dealing with concepts of planning and democracy. of citizen participation. and of efficiency in government are all indicative of a widespread concern over the reconciliation of this current trend toward administration on the one hand with traditional values on the other.

There are obviously many other ways in which this trend toward administered activities might be described. Here we wish simply to emphasize that in our genera­tion efforts are being made to arrange and control human relationships more consciously. more deliber­ately. and. it is to be hoped. more responsibly than during the last century. An interdependent world is being forced to an awareness of the limitations of indi­vidual freedom and personal choice. To recognize this fact is not to pass judgment upon its merits. The prob­lem is evident enough to provoke thoughts concerning a philosophy of history or scheme of values that might guide the individual in dealing with his environment. Such matters of subjective evaluation. it is assumed. lie beyond our present concerns.

In summary. the need for a rational view of the social sciences is an inevitable consequence of the fact that aspirations to create an orderly society strain mankind's capacity to achieve such purposes in a humane, coherent, and effective fashion. Advances in physical science and engineering have created problems in social readjustment of unparalleled complexity. Reliance is placed increasingly upon a process of con­scious decision.making for the ordering of human affairs. The social sciences cannot be regarded as pro· viding early solutions for such an enormous range of problems. but they do provide an approach to these problems that enables the human skills released by factual inquiry. by experimentation. and by analysis. to make their contribution. Here is a trail blazed through the jungle that may eventually be widened to a highway for cultural advance and peaceful social intercourse.

THE NATURE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

There is considerable difference of opinion concern­ing the precise definition of the social sciences. Much of this difference may be of a semantic character and may rest upon a confusion in the use of words rather than on any basic difference in ideas. The social sci· ences are sometimes broadly defined as those concerned with the study of problems of human relationships.

!I

The variety of social science disciplines and subdisci­plines suggests the broad and general fashion in which the term is currently used. Clarification of terminology is needed.

People are not born social scientists any more than they are born classical scholars or mathematicians. Good social scientists are the product of careful selection and rigorous training. as are good chemists. The fact that incompetents and even charlatans are found under the social scientists' tent is unfortunate and to some extent perhaps inevitable in all such fluid fields of professional development. Moreover, there are those who regard themselves as social scientists but who are primarily concerned with advancing some kind of personally pre­ferred social policy. These are. in fact. special pleaders. however sophisticated their rationalizations may be. There are also many individuals active in the general social science field who are more or less identified with furthering the interests of specific groups. For example. such men are often called upon to assist in lobbying and propaganda work in labor. industrial. agricultural or other types of organizations with which they may be associated. It is relatively easy to identify the propa· gandist. but less easy to identify specialists in the field of scholarship who conceal their hortatory approach under the guise of systematic inquiry. Perhaps the majority of those generally regarded as social scientists are primarily teachers or administrators who are con­sumers rather than producers of research. and could more accurately be described as practitioners than as scientists.

There is great need for a thoughtful consideration of what the natural and social sciences have in common and of the respects in which they differ. To insist upon a sharp dichotomy may be misleading. For example. psychology and anthropology 1 are usually classed as social sciences yet to the degree that they study function and structure of human organisms. they are every bit as "natural" as biology or chemistry.

Many thoughtful people. including scientists of dis­tinction and unquestioned competence in their own fields. genuinely feel that there are certain differences between the subject matter of the physical and the social sciences which preclude the applicability of the same general methods to both ....

The invention of units and instruments with which to systematize observation is part of the scientific task in all fields. (Neither calories nor calorimeters came ready-made in the phenomena of physics.) They have to be invented to apply to the behavior in question, just as units of income or standard of living and scales for measuring them have to be invented. I am not

1 Both disciplines are represented in both the National Research Coundl and the Social Science Research Council.

making light of the difficulties involved in inventing either such units or appropriate instruments of scien­tific observation. Nor should we minimize the prob­lems of interpreting the data which we observe. But here again we have at our disposal the same rules of logic, statistics, and scientific method that we apply to observations of physical events.-

There is a second distinction that should also be taken into account: the boundary line between the humanities and the social sciences. In historical terms, modem sci­ence in both the natural and social science fields is based upon the humanities. This point has been cogently made by President Conant in these words:

Who were the precunors of those early investigators who in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries set the standards for exact and impartial scientific inquiries? Who were the spiritual ancestors of Copernicus, Gali­leo, and Vesalius? Not the casual experimenter or the artful contriver of new mechanical devices who gradu­ally increased our empirical knowledge of physics and chemistry during the Middle Ages. These men passed on to subsequent generations many facts and valuable methods of attaining practical ends but not the spirit of scientific inquiry. For the burst of new ardor in disciplined intellectual inquiry we must tum to a few minds steeped in the Socratic tradition, and to those early scholars who first recaptured the culture of Greece and Rome by primitive methods of archaeology. In the first period of the Renaissance, the love of dis­passionate search for the truth was carried forward by those who were concerned with man and his works rather than with inanimate or animate nature. During the Middle Ages, interest in attempts to use the human reason critically and without prejudice. to probe deeply without fear and favor, was kept alive more by those who wrote about human problems than about natural phenomena. In the early days of the Revival of Learn­ing. it was the humanist's exploration of antiquity that came nearest to exemplifying our modern ideas of im­partial inquiry.'

This quotation is relevant to the present discussion not only for the point it makes so clearly but also as sug­gesting the value of historical perspective in analyzing the role of social science in modem society.

There is a real distinction today between the human­ists and social scientists: the latter are chiefly concerned with the facts of social behavior and their relationships; the former, chiefly with values and classical scholarship. One logical ground on which "sciences" can be differ­entiated from "humanities" is method. Any discipline which is loyal to the scientific method-i.e., which pro­ceeds by systematic observation of phenomena under rigorously controlled conditions-is entitled to be called

I George A. Lundberg, CCln Science Save Us7 (New York: Longman'. Green and Co.. 1947). pp. 1~18.

, James Bryant Conant. "The Scientific Education of the Layman." YlIle RevieuI, S6:I!t1O (Autumn 1948)·

<4

a science no matter whether its data are atoms or votes. The fact that it is more difficult to use the scientific method with certain classes of data, e.g., human be­havior, is not relevant. To argue otherwise is to argue that we can understand certain natural phenomena through controlled observation but that others can be comprehended only by reflection and intuition.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENTIST

A topic vitally in need of clarification is the social responsibility of the social scientist. In our culture, social scientists are often so much concerned with the forwarding of social objectives that they tend to be hortatory rather than objectively analytical. Our pres­ent practical need seems to be that of emphasizing the latter approach. if social science in a strict sense is to make its major contribution. In other words, the social science approach to contemporaneous issues might serve to diminish wishful thinking and substitute factual analysis for special pleading.

The task of providing an ethical structure or value system for society has never been assigned to scientists and is quite outside any competence which their scien­tific training gives them. This is as true of social scien­tists as of natural scientists. Either a natural scientist or a social scientist may contribute greatly to this prob­lem if he happens to be a great man as some scientists have been, as was William James, but the establishment of a moral order is not part of the task of a scientist qua scientist. Strictly defined, it is not the function of the social sciences to determine public purposes or human­istic objectives. yet the work of social scientists can make great contributions to the commonweal. On the other hand there is always the possible danger that social science, by perfecting manipulative skills, can be turned to anti-social purposes in the hands of unscrupulous leaders. Obviously this is equally true of the natural sciences. One may hope that as methods of under­standing and controlling human behavior are improved, these methods will be put to the best social use. Such a causal nexus, however, cannot be taken for granted. For example, the Germans during the war displayed a high degree of sophistication in the training and handling of troops from a psychological standpoint. As we know, they developed propaganda of extraordinary efficiency. Their knowledge of human behavior was, from our standpoint, turned to anti-social purposes. The improvement of methodology in the social sciences does not in itself mean an advance in social welfare.

If this view of the social sciences is accurate, it points to the necessity for clarification of the role of the social scientist both within the various disciplines and for the public as well. As social scientists envisage their role

more clearly, they may be expected to act more effec­tively and present their wares more persuasively to the public.

SOCIAL SCIENCE AND CONTEMPORARY LIFE

One of the marked differences between the scientists working with inert matter and lower organulIU and the scientists concerned with human functions and behavior is that the former have developed technicians trained for the specific job of putting results to practical use. These technicians include doctors, dentists, engineers, soil conservationists, etc. Their clearest counterparts in the social sciences are social workers, clinical psycholo­gists, and graduates of schools of business and public administration. One of the greatest needs in the social sciences is for the development of skilled practitioners who can use social data for the cure of social ills as doctors use scientific data to cure bodily ills. At the moment the market can absorb many more trained social technicians than the universities are prepared to furnish.

The term technician is a loose one, presumably appli­cable to anyone who uses "techniques," of whatever sort, and it would be difficult to deny the applicability of this term to congressmen, teachers, mechanics, or mothers. But the term social science technician should mean something fairly specific. It should mean an indi­vidual who has been professionally trained to apply to practical situations the facts, generalizations, principles, rules, laws, or formulae uncovered by social science research.

For example, if a politician with adequate research training were to set up a scientific experiment to deter­mine the validity of public opinion polls, he might be labeled a social scientist. If, in facing the practical prob­lem of predicting his own chance of election, he were to conduct a poll according to scientific sampling pro­cedures, he would be functioning as a social science technician. But when he uses common sense, intuition, sagacity, and his rich fund of experience to guide him in a political situation he is neither scientist nor tech­nician. With all due credit to his skill, there is no gain in giving him a false and misleading label.

This point is important because every science must ultimately establish the distinction between practi­tioners who are professionally trained to apply its find­ings and practitioners who are working precisely the same field with only the aid of their own personal experience, art, and wisdom. The fact that the latter class on occasion may be far more effective in terms of end-results does not alter the necessity for distinguish­ing between the two groups. Experience in the medical

5

field is instructive. It is still not uncommon to find that a mother, a faith healer, or a practical nurse of skill and experience can heal a child in a desperate situation, yet few doubt the wisdom of distinguishing between professional physicians and these other practi­tioners. The position of medical men in the early nine­teenth century was not such a happy one, but the pres· ent strength of the profession may be partly credited to their tenacity in insisting upon the special professional role of the physician as distinguished from other prac­titioners no matter how successful.

The analogy of the medical practitioner may be car­ried a step further in order to clarify our conception of the social science technician. Intuitive judgment is an element of enormous importance in the work of the clinical physician; mere technical competence is not enough. Great diagnosticians utilize the findings of research and medical laboratories but they also bring to bear personal characteristics of judgment and under­standing that constitute essential elements in the art of healing. It is difficult to find precise words for describ­ing such facton but it is recognized that great practi­tioners are more than routine technicians. This seems likewise to be true of men who are skillful in the man· agement of human beings and social situations. Social engineers of this sort at the present time are not usually trained in the social sciences in any technical sense.

For the social needs of the future it seems highly de­sirable to have more men trained as practitioners through knowledge of the application of a social science discipline, and also possessed of those intangible skills that are the product of both personality and successful experience. Judgment, common sense, and a sharp eye for relevancy are part of the necessary equipment. The capacity to focus on a new problem the directly relevant knowledge from past experience is probably what passes in common parlance for intuition. The really intuitive man is the one who hits immediately on the real and pertinent analogy when confronting a new problem. There is obviously a tremendous need in the field of human relations for great practitioners able to meet the standards just described.

The frame of natural science inquiry is so organized that many men can make numerous minor contribu­tions which together have cumulative significance. The well trained worker can find a place for himself in accordance with his individual capacities. This is not true to the same extent in the social sciences. How­ever, in those instances where a field of inquiry in the social sciences has been mapped out clearly, much sound work has been accomplished. For example, over thirty years ago bureaus of municipal research

were established in order to forward the cause of efficient city government. In the ensuing decades much highly useful work has been accomplished with respect to purchasing methods, sewage disposal, fire protection, police administration, and related activities.

NEEDED DEVELOPMENTS IN SOCIAL SCIENCE

If we frankly appraise the present stage of develop­ment of the social sciences, strictly defined, we recognize that an enormous amount of research must be under­taken. Vast areas of our knowledge concerning human relationships are still in a primitive state. There are suggestive parallels between the present status of politi­cal science and that of medical research a century ago. In the early nineteenth century doctors were debating the theory of disease. One school of thought argued that pathology was monistic; that is, all disease derived from a single cause. This approach placed medical discussions on the level of debate. It was not until physicians developed clinical medicine and adopted an empirical approach to their subject that more con­structive discussion ensued. It was not so long ago that political scientists in the main were publi hing treatises on the abstract nature of sovereignty, and were argu­ing about the monistic and pluralistic character of authority. From a methodological standpoint social science research at the present time still is far out­distanced by the natural sciences.

Social engineering might be defined as the applica­tion of knowledge of social phenomena to specific prob­lems. Enough has been accomplished in these terms to warrant confidence that much more can be achieved in the future. For example, the work done in clinical psychology, in city planning, in public opinion polling, and in criminology indicates clearly that social engi­neering is a meaningful conception, worthy of consider­able expansion.

The dissemination of knowledge concerning social sci­ence is an integral part of the concern of social scientists with the development of their fields, because the success of both social science research and social engineering rests to a great extent upon general understanding of both the limitations and the potentialities of social sci­ence contributions to contemporary life. Here, again, the analogy with medicine is suggestive. Medical advance has been tremendously affected by the confi­dence people have in the medical profession and by the readiness of the public to support medical institu­tions. Physicians have, of course, made a place for them­selves by demonstrated results, but they have been aided in this process by a human readiness to accept on faith the possibilities of therapy. In fact, human hope of

6

"cures" probably always has been in advance of solid medical achievement. At the present time social science stands in need of both financial and moral support from the public. As governmental support becomes of greater importance, a wide public understanding of the social ciences is eminently desirable.

At the present time, with respect to human relations, it might be said that every man is his own expert. Cer­tainly the average man is less inclined to recognize the authority of the social scientist than that of the natural scientist.

One of the objectives to be sought in the social sci­ence field is the acceptance of the social scientist and the social science technician as having distinctive con­tributions to make to modern life. This also entails a clear understanding of the limitations of the com­petence of the expert. "Practical results" in the manip­ulation of human relations can be obtained through much cruder methods than can be used by the natural scientist working in his laboratory. Manipulative skill in controlling human phenomena and in moving men to action is not limited to a highly rational and con­scious analysis of social phenomena. The demagogue, for example, has proved his effectiveness as a manipu­lator by using an apparently intuitive or emotional approach. The social scientist must work within a range of problems that may be at the same time of vital concern to both the politician and the ordinary citizen.

If social scientists and the public, as here suggested, need help and encouragement in defining their imme­diate and long-time objectives, the studies listed in Mr. Poffenberger's opening article in this issue should be so designed as to capitalize the growing drive for sound scientific practice in the field of human relations.

In summary, their objectives should be:

1. Identification of the distinctive contributions of the social sciences

2. Encouragement of the present trend toward vig­orous scientific inquiry in these fields

!. Further acceptance of such work on the part of scholars, university and governmcntal authorities, and the public generally

4. Stimulation of greater cooperation among social scientists and between the disciplines

5. Focusing of attention upon problems of basic re­search most relevant to social needs

6. Development of the wider application of social engineering

7. Attraction of able mcn and women to the social sciences, both as research workers and as technicians, with provision of rewards commensurate with their contributions

8. Increased emphasis on those aspects of social science activity in need of (a) governmental subsidies; (b) foundation support; (c) academic recognition.

Presidential Items

Graduate Training in Economics: Adding Value

The Council takes pleasure in reporting a new train­ing program, one focused on Ph.D. candidates in eco­nomics. It is a timely initiative, as a number of prac­ticing economists are reexamining certain core assumptions of the discipline--developing theories of trade that do not hinge on the assumption of perfect competition; theories of the finn that incorporate notions of asymmetric and imperfect information; theories of consumption that take gender into account; theories of growth that emphasize the role of institu­tions; and theories of utility based on interpersonal rather than aggressively individualistic notions of well-being. This enrichment of theory is coupled with increasing attention to such social questions as environmental externalitie , dysfunctional labor mar­kets, income distribution and wealth inequalities, and education and welfare policies.

The present period, then, presents unusual oppor­tunities to "add value" to graduate training in eco­nomics through a national competitive program that can facilitate the work of those graduate students interested in theories and methods that freshly exam­ine standard assumptions, draw upon relevant work from adjacent disciplines, and extend the topical range of economics. Such graduate work will help establish what some have called a "new main tream" in economics training and research.

Graduate students inclined toward these goals just mentioned-fresh examination of standard assump­tions, connecting with adjacent disciplines, and tak­ing up new topics (or taking up old topics in new ways)-can benefit from fmancial support specifi­cally targeted to the selection of and preparation for dissertation research. Any program that can broaden the menu of substantive themes available for disserta­tion research, and/or help the student find new perspec­tives-from other disciplines or from fresh theoreti­cal assumptions and methodological approaches-will provide a bridge between the tools acquired in the two-year core sequence and the kind of dissertation written. Because the early teaching and research of faculty is strongly marked by the substantive focus and methodology of the dissertation, a modest incen­tive at the point of selecting a dissertation topic can

MARCH 1997

influence early career choices. The modest financial incentives work best when coupled with professional recognition. Ph.D. candidates branching out from conventional tracks will be encouraged if they and their faculty advisors have cross-university links and are part of a national program that applauds and legitimates their work.

The value added, then, i to nationally and vi ibly legitimate new mainstream work at the graduate level, and to facilitate this by assisting at the critical stage when students move from the reception mode (cour e work and exams) to the research mode (dis­sertation planning and writing). The program in economics training intends to accelerate, legitimate, extend, and give national visibility to the aspira­tions of graduate students in a number of leading departments.

The proposed program builds upon the rigorous training embedded in the core curriculum, but it pro­vides opportunities to reflect on the limits as well as strengths of the prevailing assumptions. Moreover, the program will encourage tho e tudents who are drawn to fresh theorizing about issues of inequality, externalities, perverse incentives, dysfunctional mar­kets, and the like. The program will also encourage research that can be strengthened by attention to methods and theories developed in disciplines adja­cent to economics. Perhaps mo t significantly, it is designed for students who let the choice of a ub­stantive problem guide their theoretical and method­ological approach, rather than vice versa.

Target audience

The program will competitively select graduate students, primarily, though not exclusively, in eco­nomics departments, who have mastered the basic tools necessary for advanced economic research and who are seeking course work and dissertation tracks that hold promise for careers dedicated to examining core assumptions and to empirical studies of critical social questions. This, we believe, is a group amen­able to the encouragement that comes from being part of a national community of like-minded stu­dents and faculty and a group likely to make effec-

ITEMs/3

tive u e of mode t financial upport in the critical period of formulating a di ertation topic.

Program components

The program is based on a notion of how to accel­erate change in a field, and how to cultivate a particu­lar et of kills and outlooks among graduate tu­dent . It reflect the Council' en e that the mo t effective intervention are tho e that are both incre­mental and cumulative; that build on the re ource graduate tudent bring to their training, but al 0

encourage them to trengthen and broaden their kill ; that re pect the con traints of a tructured

graduate program-and the prerogative of a depart­ment-but work to upplement the opportunitie available to tudent in their home departments by providing re ources and acce to experience beyond tho e the home in titution can offer; that are interven­tioni t in haping the compo it ion of the fellow hip pool, and in the activitie made available to the fel­low during their tenure in the program.

Although a number of de ign i ue will be worked out a the program i implemented, one component under con ideration i a pecial eminar open to graduate tudent following their fir t or econd year of cour e work. Here the idea i to remind tudent, fre h from their immersion in the core curriculum, that "economic can be fun." Thi would be an event de igned to provide a broad overview of the rich intellectual po ibilitie as tudent begin to con ider the area in which they hope to u e the rigorou ana­lytic tool they have ju t mastered. Pre entation would involve leading economi t who can communi­cate the excitement of applying analytic tool to the inve tigation of critical ocial problem . Other pre-entation would bring the per pective of adjacent

discipline to bear on i ue centrally important to economic -for in tance, a panel on persi tent poverty in which there is a demographic per pective on popu­lation dynamics and a psychological perspective on a pirations, a well as an economic per pective on labor market -not to ay that one per pective i wrong and the other right, or one better and the other Ie 0, but to remind the tudents that the e are complex i sue that merit examination from multiple per pective .

The tran ition from course work and examination to di sertation planning and writing i , for all di ci-

4\ln:MS

pline , a difficult one. Except in rare ca e , graduate tudent do not hift ea i1y from the reception mode

to the re earch mode. The SSRC economics training initiative includes a competitively allocated stipend that will allow a elect number of tudent ,perhap a ub et of tho e who participated in the ummer emi­

nar, to frame an experience pecifically de igned to identify and prepare for a di ertation con i tent with the goal of the program. At thi tage, the program would no doubt offer a menu of choices:

• Internships: Some tudent will benefit from a hort-term but inten ive experience in a govern­

ment agency uch a the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) or Congre ional Budget Office (CBO); in international agencie uch a the World Bank or the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); in a policy in titute uch as Brooking or Hoover; in a data collection environment

uch a National Opinion Re earch Center (NORC) or Re earch Triangle In titute (RTI). The program will pre-negotiate uch intern hip po ibilitie, and make them available on a competitive basi .

• Assistantships: Some student will mo t u e­fully find their di ertation topic in an ongoing re earch project, whether at their home in titu­tion or in ome other etting, and the tipend will provide the opportunity to erve in a re earch a i tant hip role.

• Specialized Training: Some tudent will need competence in a methodology, uch as experi­mental economic , not available in their home in titution, but which could be acquired by a eme ter el ewhere.

• Interdisciplinary Exposure: Some tudents will benefit from an expo ure to work in an adjacent di cipline-from evolutionary biology to insti­tutional history, from the social p ychology of preference ordering to the politic of public finance-not ea i1y acquired in the cour e work equence of their economic department, and

will u e the tipend, again with the upport of their the i advisor, to work with faculty in a different department.

VOLUME 51, NUMBER 1

Thi menu of po ibilitie will no doubt enlarge and undergo modification through con ultation between the tudent and hi /her the i advi or and the SSRC' teering committee, and in active consultation with economic department . It i important. of cour e, that participation-even if it take place away from a tude nt' home in titution-not be a di trac­tion from an otherwi e tightly integrated, depart men­tally-ba ed training equence. The intent of thi pro­gram component i a well crafted experience that erve two function : (I) mooth the tran ition from

reception to re earch mode; and, (2) opens the theo­retical and ub tantive arena a the di ertation topic i being elected. The final de ign will, obviou Iy, be guided by ugge tion put forth by tho e department mo t intere ted in cooperating with the training initiative.

Le developed, but under con ideration, i a con­cluding event for each cohort of awardee as it tran-it from graduate chool to employment. The hope

i that the tudent participating in the program will have completed di ertation that di tingui h them from their peer , and that will have legitimate claim to repre ent the cutting edge in the di cipline. If 0,

it i work that hould be showca ed, and pre ented to

MARCH 1997

an audience interested in the frontiers being explored by orne of the country' be t young economi ts. A conference would wrap up the program, for a given cohort, in an event that involve innovative graduate tudent and faculty from a number of department

with a number of non-academics who repre ent the audience for which the re earch i , in part, intended. However de igned, the concluding event wil1lend national vi ibility and legitimacy to the purpo e that motivate the program.

Conclu ion

The economics training initiative will get under­way in 1997, and be fully operating in 1998. It will be guided by a teering committee of leading econo­mist. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ha provided core funding for three cycle, and the Council will explore with other fun­der opportunitie to expand the cope of the pro­gram. Operational detail and guideline for the competitive selection of awardee will be announced in ub equent i ue of Items and on the Council' web page. •

-Kenneth Prewitt

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Democratization Revisited by Adam Pneworski *

[The following is based Oft a preselltatiofl made by Mr. Pneworski at tlte SSRC Oft November 14, 1996.]

I'm going to revi it with you the -tudy of democra-tization I my elf have experienced it, ince one learn by looking back at what one did not ee at the time. Ba ically I'm going to give you two theme : one i the tudy of tran ition to democracy and the other i the current thinking about economic reform which, I think, i very rapidly being tran formed by the under tanding that economic reform mu t meet political reform .

Per onallhi torieal baekround

Let me tart by telling you how I got involved. I'm Poli h and I got involved with democratization for the first time by being beaten by police in 1957 at a tudent demon tration when the government clo ed a tudent new paper. I left Poland; I came here; I went

to Chile; pent ome time in Chile; . aw democracy being de troyed there; and came back to the United State . In 1978 I received a phone call from a friend, Philippe Schmitter, in which he invited me to join a project which he and Guillermo O'Donnell were organizing under the au pice of the Wil on Center to tudy the po ibility of liberalization and perhap

even democratization of authoritarian regime in outhern Europe and Latin America. Thi wa ju t

after Portugal and Greece became democracie . Portugal had aboli hed the Salazar authoritarian y tem, Greece became a full-fledged democracy, and

Spain wa in the proce of tran ition, while in Latin America ferociou military dictator hip still reigned. About 40 people were there from many countrie , including the United State . The fir t thing that truck me wa that nobody even mentioned the name of Barrington Moore or Seymour Martin Lip et, the two major thinkers at that time on democracy and democ­ratization who had previou Iy dominated the intellec­tual perspective. That' what we all read, that' what we all tudied, that' what we all wrote about, and yet here you had a group of 40 cholar who di cu ed the topic and the work without even mentioning

• Adam Przeworski i profe. r of politics t ew Yorlc UniversJ\y_

6\ITEM

them. Why was that? Becau e both of the e perspec­tive were ju t too determini tic for our ta teo If you remember, Moore ay that whether a country end up being a democracy or a dictator hip depend on the agrarian cia tructure a couple of centurie ago. And Lip et ay that a country ha to develop, it ha. to modernize; only then can democracy come about.

Now thi group of people were militant for democracy in one form or another, at lea t vicari­ou Iy. And the notion that we would have to wait for the condition to produce it and that there w nothing for u to do wa untenable. I think that i why the e name did not appear and why the whole project wa cast very much in the vein of what omebody dubbed a "thoughtful wi hing." We

wanted to know what movement in different coun­trie could do to bring dictator hip down rather than imply wait.

But even though the mood wa one of open inquiry, the dominant intellectual per pective at thi time wa ho tile to any kind of analytic or formal­ized trategic thinking. Probably the dominant theo­retical and methodological per pective, in that group at lea t, wa omething called in Spani h the hi tori­cal tructural method, el metodo hi torieo e truetural. That method proceeded from the analy i of the eco­nomic tructure of ocietie , to an analy i of inter­e t , to an analy i of group, to an anaJy i of alliance . So it was trategic and intere t-ba ed and a ked que tion about alliance . Yet, there wa a kind of empha i and in i tence that rejected any notion of tudying the e thing with ome kind of ab tract approach. A year before the Wil on Center confer­ence I wa in a meeting with Fernando Henrique Cardo 0, now pre ident of Brazil, and he wa outlin­ing and analyzing Latin American countrie : given the e group and tho e intere t , the e were the coalition we could ob erve. I asked him: "How do you know that with the e intere t you get the e coalition ." He aid, "Oh, you're ju t looking for empty formula ." So thi i the ort of pirit pre­dominating at that time, and what happened in the project wa that the cia ificatory approach pre­vailed, which was omething my friend Jon EI ter eventually called the "botanical approach." That i , the que tion was: what were the boxe and how would you put the countrie into the right boxe ?

The fir t hypothe i that wa formulated at the meeting wa that the mode of tran ition depend on

VOLUME 51, N 1BER 1

type of authoritarian regime. And the econd wa that the eventual re ult depend on mode of tran i­tion. So we had type of authoritarian regime, mode of tran ition, and then eventual outcome; the que -tion was how to be t to clas ify them. And a competi­tion developed in which big prize were given for ugge ting categorie that other people would accept

and mall prize were given for putting countrie into the particular boxe . The great winner in thi compe­tition wa what was not accidentally called in Spani h ruptura pactada, negotiated breakthrough, ince this wa the only fea ible pattern to follow. Much of the di cu ion concerned condition for making this negotiated breakthrough po ible, a well a actual trategie for negotiation.

Thi neglect of long-term proce e, as well a our willingne to compromi e, eventually evoked wide pread and ometimes virulent political and intellectual critici m. Both the Wil on Center vol­ume -which I learned recently are cited ix time a often a any other work on democratization-and my own book, publi hed in 1991, have been ubject to that critici m.1 I have to ay that I am not ympa­thetic to the political critici m. Mo t of the people engaged in that project were ociali t of one kind or another. The under tanding that the only way to bring dictator hip down and to e tabli h orne kind of y tern of rule of law entailed po ible compromise

in the ocial and economic realm wa painful to many of us. We knew what was at take and we were prudent, ju tifiably 0 I think. It is very easy in retro-pect to charge "betrayal," now that the dictator hip

are overthrown and orne of the perpetrator of the crime are or were in jail. You have to remember that thi was a time when Franco was till killing miner in A turia ; the Argentine dictatorship wa killing randomly; the Chilean dictator hip wa killing y­tematically. We were concerned first and foremo t about topping the killing; that's really what democ­racy meant for u . And we were ready to compromi e.

Dynamics of dictatorship

The intellectual i ue, which i much more com­plicated, i : how doe one think about the combina-

I Transitions/rom Authoritarian Rull!, Guillenno O'Donnell et ai, cd . 4 vol . Baltimore: The John Hopkin University Pre • 1986. Dtmocracy and tht Marut: Political and Economic Rt/orm., In Eastun Europl! and Latin Amuica, by Adam Przeworkski. New York: Cambridge University Pre ,1991.

MARCH 1997

tion of long-term factor and hort-term one? The way to think about it i that you have a dictatorship and the dictatorship evolve and it has it own dynamic. The strategic ituation i uch that orne force rule at the time, and some forces make up the oppo ition. But the trategic tructure of the ituation i uch that whoever i to be the winner would want to rule by force-or at lea t dictator do.

What mu t be happening in the e long-term proce e i that omehow the structure of the itua­tion i altered in uch a way that a negotiated olu­tion, orne kind of compromi e, uddenly become po ible. To apply a game-theoretic framework, the payoff to the dictator from maintaining the monop­oly of power change in uch a way that if a dictator-hip can negotiate it way out with guarantee , then

that olution is preferable to an overthrow. So the que tion become : what are the e proce e?

Modernization theory point to long-term economic development. Many of u believe hort-term eco­nomic cri e playa role. It could be the death of the founding dictator. Some regime are ju t as table a their founder (Franco). In orne case it's exhaustion in a civil war, as in EI Salvador. In ome ca e it' probably international pre ure, which certainly played a role in South Africa. In other case it i purely geo-political, a in Taiwan. Evidently, dicta­tor hip run many competing ri ks; they can die for all kind of reason . The re ult i that it' very hard, if not impo ible, to predict tran ition to democracy. I've gathered lot of tati tic on the topic, trying to include anything I can ob erve-economic factor , political factor, and 0 on-to tati tically predict whether dictator hip will fall. I can tell you that the level of economic development, at least as mea ured by per capita income, predicts zero transition . And if you bring in the whole kitchen sink, including cul­tural variable , and all kind of economic variable , you predict two out of 49 collap e that occurred between 1950 and 1990.

If we don't have a good long-term view of transi­tion ,do we have a better short-term view? Let me give you a little game theory becau e there i ome­thing really puzzling about thi problem. Say there i a dictator hip and the dictator ha the following choice: he can try to open the y tern, or keep the tatu quo. Thi i the opening, "liberalization" a it

was called at that time. The dictator offer a limited form of participation to ome group of civilian who

IreMs/7

are not part of the power group, in exchange for their upport. Or, there i no opening and the re ult i the tatu quo. If the dictator open , then the oppo ition

move . And the oppo ition can either accept thi opening and "enter" or it can mobilize. If the oppo i­tion enter, the re ult i a broader dictator hip. If the oppo ition mobilize , then the dictator hip ha to decide what to do. It can repre • which I treat a keeping the tatu quo, or it can yield and the re ult i then tran ition.

There are orne force , at lea t in the dictator hip, that prefer the broader dictator hip. but dictator are not democrat 0 they prefer the tatu quo to tran i­tion . Now, the oppo ition prefer tran ition to the broader dictator hip to the tatu quo. If the oppo i­tion mobilize, the dictator will go for repre ion. But if the oppo ition know that the re ult i going to be repre ion, the oppo ition will go for a broader dictator hip which i preferable to the tatu quo. If the dictator know that the oppo ition will go for broader dictator hip, and ince the dictator prefer broader dictator hip to the. tatu. quo, the dictator will open. Re ult: the dictator open. , the oppo ition enter , and you get a broader dictator hip. You don't get tran ition.

Suppo e that the dictator cannot repre ,for one reason or another. What happen then? If the dicta­tor open , the oppo ition mobilize ; it mobilize. into tran it ion, which it prefer to broader dictator hip. If the the oppo ition i going to go to tran ition. and ince the dictator prefer tatu quo to tran ition. the

dictator will never open. What happen then? A you ee, if everybody know everything, tran. ition never

occur . Something i obviou Iy wrong. Two fact , I think, are illuminating.

(I) Dictator tend to believe that the genie can be put back into the bottle. They alway omehow think that they can open and yet repre ,that they will not 10 e control. They alway believe that they're going to leave the door ajar, let whoever they want in. and then clo e it whenever they want. It tum out that they can rarely do that. We had period which were euphemi tically called normalization-Poland in 1957 or 1981, and the Dominican Republic in 1965-but they are rare. Once you get the cork out of the cham­pagne bottle the dictator hip i not going to hold.

(2) Once the dictatorship i already at the point of holding election , they are per uaded they are going to win. Pinochet, when the vote were being counted

8\ITEM

in the plebi cite of 1989, till thought he wa going to win. The Sandini ta in 1990 certainly thought they were going to win until the last moment. In June 1989, right before the Polish election , I wa a ured by a friend who was a reformed communi t that the communi t were going to win more than half the eat in the competitive election for the Poli h enate. Half of the 100 eat . You know how many they won? Zero.

Thi i obviou Iy not the tuff of which rational choice i made. It' a peculiar kind of ituation in which game theory i very u eful becau e it tell you that you cannot have a ituation in which everybody behave rationally or trategically and everybody know what everybody el e i going to do. Whether you are peaking of the French monarchy or of com­muni m, the fall of the regime eem inconceivable. If you're the king of the dynasty which rule by the grace of God for four centurie • you don't think that if you make thi move it may endanger the regime. Or if you repre ent the force which i the future of mankind. you don't think that making a little mi take and choo ing thi political trategy or that political trategy i going to eventually reach a point where

you have no choice but to abdicate. And yet that is exactly what happen . I'm per uaded that the fall of communi m wa to a large extent due to a ucce ion of mall mi take .

'fran itions to democracy

We till don't have either a good long-term expla­nation of tran ition to democracy, or a good hort­term tory about how it really happen , about the dynamic of the e proce e. But more than that i at take. Look at that literature now and you'll be truck

by the fact that other than in the phra e "tran ition to," the word democracy eldom appear. And the re on i that we were not thinking about it. The e were extraordinarily ten e time. Live were at take and what happen i that your per pective i hort­ened. What' mo t important i what has ju t hap­pened, becau e what ha ju t happened portend the future. The "current conjuncture" i the operative concept in the e kind of ituation . I remember many time landing omewhere at an airport and being picked up by a friend and told, "Look what happened ye terday, General o-and- 0 ju t aid that. .. " And then I went to conference and people

VOL M 51. N MBI:R I

pre ented paper where the main theoretical problem wa alway what happened ye terday. They wrote paper, the paper were eventually publi hed a an acquittal of academic re pon ibility, and nobody ever read them becau e three month later the mo t theo­retical problem of the day wa different, becau e ye -terday wa different already.

So we were not looking forward , we were cha ing the tail of event rather than looking to ee where they would end. And note that the title of tho e Wil on Center volume i Transitions from Author­itarian Rule. Guillermo O'Donnell ha a couple of recent papers in which he attack the notion of "tran-ition to" a teleological. But I think he confu e

the fact that we may not know where we are going with the fact that we knew where we wanted to go. Nothing tell u that where Latin American or Eastern European countrie are eventually going to end up will be the arne place where the United State , or France, or England were. What may happen, and I am going to argue that perhap it i happening, i the formation of hybrid political y­tern which are unprecedented. Neverthele ,we hould not forget that what animated mo t people

wa orne vi ion of democracy. In under tanding the dynamic of the e processe we have to take into account the fact that people wanted to go in a particu­lar direction, and that it elf i an element that truc­ture the proce . The re ult of thi myopia wa that we were eventually- and till are, perhap - ur-pri ed by what, in Spani h, i called the desencallto, di enchantment. The progre ion eem to go from liberalization, to tran ition, to con olidation, to di enchantment.

Di enchantment with democracy. Why? Becau e a an ideal it eem more attractive than the reality, but al 0 becau e all kind of new problem are rai ed. Indeed, the "democratization" crowd has a new catchword and the new catchword i the "quality of democracy." That' what the conference are about now- no longer liberalization, nor tran ition, nor con olidation; now they're about the quality of democracy. And I think they hould be. Not only in Latin America and Ea tern Europe, but in the devel­oped democracie as well. I think thi i an agenda that i being pur ued and will be pur ued in year to come. We don't know whether conte ted election with all their attendant condition (civillibertie, political freedom, freedom of the pre ) lead to deci-

MARCH 1997

ion that are rational, to allocations that are in any en e ju t, to governments that are repre entative.

We don't know whether they give citizen control of government, whether they lead to accountability, or whether they lead to equality in the ocial and eco­nomic realm which, for about 80 percent of Eastern European and about 70 percent of Brazilian and Chilean i what democracy mean . What we u pect i that different in titutional arrangement matter. A re earch program need to deal with the impact of different in titutional arrangement in all y tern that we recognize a democracie whose rulers are elected by conte ted elections.

Democracy i a y tern of po itive right , both negative and po itive right in the political realm, but there' nothing about democracy that guarantee that individual have the effective capacity to exerci e tho e right . John Stuart Mill ay omewhere that without decent wage and univer al reading no gov­ernment of public opinion i po ible. But there i nothing about democracy per e which guarantee decent wage and universal reading. What was the 19th century olution to thi problem? It wa to re trict citizen hip to people who had the effective capacity to exercise the e right . We don't do that. We give the e po itive right to everybody. Yet we don't nece arily create the condition for the effec­tive exerci e of tho e right . And the re ult may be a democracy without effective citizen hip. If the e condition are to be created they need an active and exten ive role of the tate.

Role of the tate

Let me briefly go over what I think i the current tate of political economy or the debate on the

proper role of the tate. The hi torical ketch of thi problematic tart with the notion of a world of per­fect market . Market allocate all re ource effi­ciently. Di tributional problem are not eriou becau e if you don't like a particular allocation by the market you can imply redi tribute re ource and make market work. You then arrive at a olution which i going to be both efficient and ju t according to whatever criteria we u e in di tributing income. In thi world there i no role for the tate to play ince market do everything perfectly. Or, the tate i as umed to have created whatever condition are nec­e ary for the market to operate.

ITEMs/9

Markets work mo t of the time, but not all of the time; ometime market fail, market have imperfec­tion . If market fail, then there i omething for the tate to do to correct market imperfection . In 1959

the German Social Democratic Party abandoned it commitment to Marxi m under the logan "market whenever po ible, the tate whenever nece ary." So there i the notion that market do what they do well; whenever market fail, the tate come in. Thi worked until the mid-1970 when my former col­league from Chicago, the late George Steigler, a ked why we would as ume that, if market failed, tate would do any better. Why wouldn't the tate fail a well? Moreover, why would we a ume that when people act in the economic realm they act in elf­intere t, but that the arne people, once they become public official, uddenly become the e benevolent public ervant? Why wouldn't we as ume that once in government they would a1 0 act elfi hly? And indeed thi i the cornerstone of the neo-liberal theory, thi di tru t of the tate.

Information provide a newer round of the debate. Once you abandon the a umption that everybody know everything and the a umption that there are market for all commoditie now and in the future-and both of the e a umption are unten­able-then you don't even have a pre umption that market work. There i a brilliant, important recent book by Jo eph Stiglitz, Whither Socialism,2 which i the be t ummary of thi whole argument. It become very clear that there is a role for the tate to play. Moreover, it' not the kind of role we u ed to dream about before, in the en e that in many of the capital­i t- ociali t debate it was a umed that the tate knew what private economic agent didn't know. Now, the tate doe n't know anymore than private agent and yet there are all kind of tate interven­tion which improve welfare in a Pareto way, that i , make anybody better off without anybody being worse off.

It i very clear in the economic literature today that there i a very trong pre umption of a po itive role of the tate, that i , there are thing that govern­ment can do to improve welfare. Neverthele ,the effect of the neoliberal punch linger, becau e what­ever the potential role of the tate i , the que tion till

2 Cambridge. MA: MIT Press. 1993.

1000TEMS

remain: will government do what they hould and not do what they hould not? The current round of thi debate i about the reform of the tate. The an-wer to thi que tion i to tart thinking about how to

de ign political in titution in uch a way as to enable the tate to do what it hould and prevent it from doing what it hould not.

Accountability

The harde t item on that agenda i reform of the tate. Country after country i a king that que tion.

Myown pin on it i that tate will intervene effec­tively if they're ubjected to external popular control. The quality of tate intervention depend on the mechani m by which the tate i made accountable to those on behalf of whom it is uppo ed to function . There are at lea t two dimen ion involved. One i mechanism for over ight by politician of bureau­crat . By politician I mean tho e who have been elected and by bureaucrats I only mean public offi­cial who are not elected. How can the elected politi­cian control the bureaucrat ? A econd que tion is, hew can voters control politicians? Both of the e are highly problematic. Moreover, politician don't nec-e arily know how well the bureaucracy i function­ing. They don't know how long you've waited in the po t office, whether the teacher was ab ent or pre-ent, whether the cop took bribe . We the citizen

are the recipient of these ervice and we have that knowledge. For that reason, one direction the reform of the tate can take, and i taking, i in building in titution that allow and organize and aggregate information from citizen about the functioning of bureaucracy. There are all kind of alternative arrangement being di cu ed. But they are all of thi generic nature: how to organize form of popular control and at lea t popular aggregation of citizen ' information about the function of bureaucracy.

The econd problem i accountability by politi­cian . If voter know everything, then they know they can set up a y tern in which they ay to the politician : if you do thi and thi , we will vote for you; otherwi e we will not vote for you. And indeed you can how that this can be an effective in trument of control. But obviou Iy, citizen don't learn every­thing, they can't know everything. They ju t don't know enough. Therefore, the direction of reform hould trongly empha ize independent ource of

VOLUME 51, NUMBER I

information. I'll give you one example. Every time anybody make a contribution to a politician it appear on the fir t page of the new paper. You can get a Ii t of who get paid by whom. Or you have an independent electoral commi ion with it own inve -tigatory power . For example, the Argentine ju t pa ed a con titutional amendment e tabli hing an independent accounting office like the General Accounting Office, but one that i independent, the head of which i to be appointed by the large t minority in the enate. Thi give the oppo ition an inve tigatory arm to ee what the government i doing.

We've had very little in titutional innovation during the past two hundred year . Think about the major in titutional innovation during the pa t two hundred year in the political realm, where omebody thought of orne kind of in titutional etup and it eventually became accepted somewhere and utilized. Perhap the mo t recent of them i the y tern of proportional

MARCH 1997

repre entation which wa developed in England and Denmark in the 1860 . Otherwi e, if you think of major innovation of the pa t, there haven't been that many. If you look at the experience of new democra­cie you will find that, typically, if they had a democ­ratic regime in the pa t they ju t adopted the old con-titution, even if it didn't work in the pa t, like the

Argentine . They u ed the 1853 con titution which led to eight coup d'etat.

Now that we have a global world with globaJ in ti­tution , the que tion of in titutional reform take on a larger meaning. We know very little and under-tand next to nothing about "globalization." All we

have 0 far i logan and anecdote . But we do know that the upra-national que tion i alarming from the point of view of democratic theory. We have the e bodie that are not accountable to any­body, anywhere. Thi i the ort of thing we are going to be thinking about. •

ITEMs/II

SSRC Archives Open for Research by Gloria Kirchheimer*

On the eve of the SSRC's 75th anniversary, it archive have at last found a proper home where cholars can delve into it hi tory and trace the evolution of the ocial cience in the United State . In October

1996, the SSRC archive were opened to cholar at the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) in North Tarrytown, New York, a division of The Rockefeller University.

Perhaps one not in ignificant factor leading to thi felicitou outcome was a demon tration that the SSRC materials were being tored under Ie than optimal conditions. On a vi it to the New York City torage facility in March 1990, the director of the

RAC and two archivists, e corted by the SSRC' editor, witne ed the low dripping of water directly onto a file drawer containing orne SSRC file . This graphic proof, along with te timonies from distin­gui hed ocial cientists regarding the re earch value of the records and an analy i of the record them-elve , re ulted in an initial agreement igned in May

of 1990 by David L. Featherman, then president of the SSRC, and Darwin Stapleton, director of the Rockefeller Archive Center, which made the RAC the repo itory for the SSRC archives. Initially, transfer of the records wa predicated on SSRC' commitment to rai e ufficient funds to enable the RAC to proce s and maintain SSRC' materials at it facility in We tchester County, New York, 25 mile from the SSRC offices.

However, in the summer of 1990, faced with ex­tensive renovations in it Third Avenue office, the SSRC ought a afe place for the additional body of archive hou ed on its premi e . The RAC re ponded by agreeing to tore tho e records at its facility as a goodwill gesture. In the pring of 1994, more than 400 cubic feet of material from the New York City warehou e, which had been inacce ible for many years, were also transferred to the RAe.

The original plan called for the actual proce ing of the records to begin after an endowment had been

• Gloria Kirchheimer is the Social Science Research Council editor.

12\ITEMS

rai ed to fund the continuing torage and pre ervation of the material . However, in the interest of expedi­ency, the SSRC itself launched the archiving proce by covering the co t of an archivi t's alary for three years, beginning in January 1993. Thi enabled the RAC to hire a full-time archivi t for the expre pur­po e of processing SSRC' material . The project wa completed in January 1996. In October 1996 the Archive Center and the SSRC agreed on a funding program ba ed on annual upport by the SSRC that pay for the torage and pre ervation of the archive , and permit opening them for scholarly research. The SSRC plans to continue its annual contributions while at the arne time moving ahead with a fund­raising effort that eventually will enable the RAC to convert portion of the SSRC' materials into other formats such a microfilm and electronic media.

Significance of the collection

Throughout it history, the SSRC ha mobilized eminent social scientists from the U.S. and abroad to identify and explore new intellectual path , and to te t their knowledge, theorie , and method against the challenges of contemporary and hi torical prob­lems. To generations of graduate students and young faculty in many fields, the SSRC has been a major ource of grants and fellow hips; particularly in the

1930 and 1940 , the SSRC was far and away the major ource of funds for individual research. The li t of recipients is nearly identical to the founders of the contemporary ocial sciences in the wartime and immediate postwar years. The ro ter of international ocial cientists who have contributed to the SSRC's

undertakings or who have received crucial or finan­cial support, contains some of the world's leading cholars, including three Nobel Prize laureate .

In agreeing to the acquisition of the SSRC' records-the fir t non-Rockefeller and non-founda­tion records to be collected by the Center-Darwin Stapleton, director of the RAC, ob erved that

the SSRC archive illuminate many of the ignifi­cant cultural, ocial, and intellectual currents of the 20th century, including the development of important areas of public policy, the creation of entire ubdi ciplines, and the diffusion of ideas and knowledge through conferences and publica­tions. Numerous major figures in American edu­cation and policymaking appear in SSRC records.

VOLUME 51, NUMBER 1

Biographical tudie will be ignificantly enriched by drawing upon the material contained in the e documents. The inter­action of the SSRC with other cholarly enterpri e and with the philanthropic community i an important tory in the growth of a elf-con ciou re earch e tab­Ii hment, and in the ri e of an academic in titutional elite.

Contents of the collection

The SSRC' record contain the working files of it governing bodie : it Board of Director, Executive Committee, and the Committee on Problems and Policy (P&P). The e provide an internal hi tory of the Council. There are al 0 record of the 300-odd committee that have carried out the SSRC' pro­gram, including agendas, minute , conference and work hop progr~m , corre pondence, and unpub­lished conference papers. AI 0 to be found are fel­low hip and grants material , uch a project pro-po al , "hou ekeeping report " (advi ory report from fellow who have returned from the field, addre ed to incoming fellow), award letter , interim and final report . The record al 0 contain taff-written memo­randa and letter , corre pondence produced by the SSRC' executive officer , and letter and memoranda reviewing exi ting areas of SSRC activity or propo -ing new one.

There are al 0 financial record and copie of all printed Council bulletin and report , a well a every i ue ot Items, the SSRC quarterly journal, publi hed continuou Iy ince 1947.

The SSRC file at RAC cover the per;iod from 1924 to approximately 1984. Given the IO-year policy of confidentiality drawn up by the Council and the Center, the e file, with the exception of particular fellowship record and other pecific document , are not under any restriction . (Approximately 500 more cubic feet of record remain at the New York City warehou e and the e are primarily po t-1984. Plan for moving them to an interim facility are currently being drawn up.)

Users of the SSRC archives

For year , the Council was be ieged with reque t for permi sion to do re earch in it file but was unable to accommodate the many cholars eeking

MARCH 1997

information. Now that the archive are open, they hould be a major re ource for:

• Hi tori an tudying the intellectual development of the ocial sciences in the United State , part­icularly the history of concepts and method

• Biographer of ocial cienti t

• Hi torian of philanthropy

• Chronicler of government agencie : the Social Security Admini tration, the Bureau of the Cen u , and other

• Hi torian of pecific di cipline (e.g., p ycho­Iingui tics) or of pecific area tudie field (e.g., Japane e tudie)

• Student of the politic of the ocial cience and the manner in which the social cience relate to the Federal government and the Federal tati ti­cal y tem

• Ethnographers of in titutions (e.g., foundation and profe ional a ociation)

• SSRC committee member , to learn what their predece ors have done, and SSRC taff to whom the organization' in titutional memory i a fundamental guide in the preparation of pro­po al and re earch planning activitie .

Connection with existing records at RAC

The interconnection of the SSRC record with tho e at the RAC i exten ive. The re earch prob­lem et out by the SSRC often match up with the funding concern of the Rockefeller in titution , ev­eral of which provided ub tantial upport to the Social Science Re earch Council in it early year . Indeed the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial' upport of the ocial cience wa one of the primary

underpinning for the creation of the SSRC in 1923. It wa a direct re ult of the goal of Rockefeller phil­anthropie to create re earch centers, i.e., peer-man­aged organization , to timulate cholar hip. SSRC i one of the olde t centers created under this man­date. The LSRM and RF archives are therefore rich in SSRC documents, occasionally duplicating, but more often upplementing, the SSRC record . Conversely, the acquisition of the SSRC's material will fill lacunae in the RAC' holding.

ITEMsl13

The Rockefeller Archive Center

The RAC was created in 1974 to assemble, proce , and make available for cholarly re earch the archival collection of member of the Rockefeller family and of variou philanthropic and educational institution they have founded. The Center' 60 million page of documents, 500,000 photograph , and 2,000 film provide unique insight into worldwide development and i ue of the 19th and 20th centurie . More than 2,500 cholar have conducted re earch at the Center and mo t of them have produced book • articles, di -ertation , film , and exhibit, ba ed on the Center'

collection . In 1996, 270 re earcher were accommodated at

the Center, many of them helped by a Grants-in-Aid program which offer mode t upport to scholars in any di cipline who are engaged in re earch that require exten ive u e of the archival collection at the Center. Pro pective re earcher meet fir t with an archivi t-there are to on the taff-to determine how they will approach their earch. All record at the RAC, including tho e of the SSRC, have a high

14\lTEMS

level of acce , upported by detailed finding aid . The Archive Center i in North Tarrytown, New

York. adjacent to the Rockefeller family e tate in Pocantico Hill . It i hou ed in a thirty-room build­ing on 24 acre, con tructed in 1963 and originally planned a the country home of Martha Baird Rock­efeller, the econd wife of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Upon her death in 1971, the hou e wa left to the Rockefeller Brother Fund, and in tum given to The Rockefeller Univer ity which wa eeking a ite for an archive center that could join the archive of the University, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller family, and other Rockefeller-related philanthropie .

Scholar wi hing to con ult the SSRC record at the Archive Center hould call or write to the direc­tor, de cribing their project in pecific term.* •

• Phone: (914) 6314505; Fax: (914) 631-6017. Addre. : Rockefeller Archive Center. 15 Dayton Avenue. onh Tarrytown. Y 10591-1598. Researchers may also contact the Center by email at : archive rockvax.­rockcfcl~e~.cdu . !he~ are advised to con. ult the Center'. home page prior to . ubmllllng an InqUIry: http://www.rockcfeller.edularchivc.ctr/.

VOLUME 51, NUMBER 1

Current Activities at the Council

New Staff Appointment

David F. Weiman ha been named program director for the new economic training initiative at the Council, effective June I, 1997. The new program, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, i de-igned to expo e talented eco­

nomic tudent to alternative per pective in the examination of ub tantive economic i ues ( ee page 3).

Mr. Weiman, an a ociate pro­fe or of economic at Queen College and the Graduate Center, City Univer ity of New York, received a Ph.D. from Stanford University (1984) and an M.A. from Yale Univer ity (1978) where he was a ociate profe or of economic (1989-94). Mr. Weiman was al 0 a National Endowment for the Humanitie Fellow at the School of Social Science, In titute for Advanced Studie in Princeton (1993-94).

The new program director, who e primary field of intere t i U.S. economic hi tory, ha pub­Ii hed exten ively. A co-authored book, Opening Networks to Com­petition: The Regulation and Pricing of Access, i forthcoming from Kluwer Academic Pre Among hi re earch intere t are the political economy of the American South to 1945, com­parative urban history and re­gional development, the hi tory of economic thought, and the hi -torical development of the bank­ing and telecommunication indu trie .

A an economic hi torian,

MARCH 1997

Mr. Weiman con ider him elf a hybrid-both economist and his­torian- and has endeavored to engage cholar and tudent in both di cipline . "Steeped in the formative tradition of economic analy i ," Mr. Weiman ay, "I continue to view economics as a branch of 'moral philo ophy' that can and hould addre the mo t vexing qu tion of social analy i ."

Intellectual Capital Initiative Meeting

Among the new activitie of the joint SSRC-ACLS* Inter­national Program i an initiative that focu e on the human capital i ue facing the global re earch community. Thi initiative take place within the context of a more general proce of rede igning and trengthening the SSRC/­ACLS program of international, interdi ciplinary re earch and training in the ocial cience and humanitie .

An inaugural planning meeting on the initiative wa held on January 17- 18, 1997 at the SSRC in Manhattan. Thi wa the fir t in a erie of activitie to take place over the next six month that will lead to the creation of a committee on the human capital required for the re earch need of the next decade . Its purpo e will be to examine training and career maintenance a an intellectual problem, and to provide y tem­atic analy i and practical tool for the many organization en-

• American Council of Learned Societie .

gaged globally in human capital formation for intellectual work.

Twenty participant ** from universities, educational in titu­tion , foundation , NGO , and the bu ines community on four continent worked together for two day in a preliminary exami­nation of human re earch capital formation and maintenance on a global cale. Five key que tion were addre ed: (1) In what area and around what i ue will intellectual firepower be needed in the future? (2) Given the e need , what capacitie and competencie will re earcher need? (3) What are the in titu­tional capacitie and con traint that affect the creation, mainte-

•• Li a Anderson, School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University; Elinor Barber. Columbia University; Kennette Benedict. Program on Peace and International Cooperation, MacArthur Foundation; Stephen Blank, Pace University; Peggy Blumenthal, In tllute for International Education; Michael Chege, University of Aorida; Jeffrey Fine, Economic Con ultant ; Craufurd Goodwin, Duke University; Deep Joshi , Pro~ ional A i. lance for Development Action (PRADAN); Stanley N. Katz. American Council of Learned Societie (ACLS); Richard Lambert, University of Penn ylvania; Dan McIntyre. The New School for Social Re arch; Thandika Mkandawire, Centre for Development Research, Denmark; Joyce Moock, Rockefeller Foundation; Juan Pablo Ptrez·S inz. Facultad Latinoamericana de Cienciru Sociales, Costa Rica [memo included in absentia]; Kenneth Prewitt, Social Science Research Council, Robert Rosenzweig, A . ociation of American Universitie. ; Peter Smith, University of California. San Diego; Wedigo de Vivanco, Freie Universitat Berlin; David Wiley, Michigan State University. Staff: Mary Byrne McDonnell, Social Science Research Council ; Steven Wheatley, American Council of Learned Societie

ITEMs/IS

nance, and deployment of the type of re earch population that are needed? (4) How can effec­tive trategie be de igned for managing in titutional and y­temic con traints? (5) Toward which pecific area hould ana­lytic attention be directed?

Additional activities will take place in New York, Asia, and Europe over the coming month . In addition, a series of papers will be developed on variou aspect of the topic, including the con truction of map of the human re earch capital ituation in different areas of the world.

Economic Governance and Flexible Production

An October 3-6, 1996 SSRC-pon ored conference held at the

National T ing Hua University in H inchu, Taiwan addre ed the relation hip between pattern of economic governance and flexi­ble production in East A ia. Funded by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, with addi­tional upport from the Council' East A ia Regional Re earch Working Group, the conference provided an occasion to debate more than 15 original paper ana­lyzing the in titutional underpin­ning of productive flexibility acro a range of economic ec­tors throughout East and South­east A ia.

The central hypothe i guiding thi project i that the capacity of firm and network of firm to engage in flexible production i conditioned by in titutional arrangement linking actor to one another in relation hip of cooperation a well a competi-

16\JTEMS

tion. Conference paper exam­ined the nature of the e relation-hips, within firm as well a

acro firm and between private sector actor and tate agencies, and con idered their implication for the ability of particular ec­tor to maintain flexibility. Special emphasi wa placed on the way in which haring of information and pooling of ri k may enable economic actor to adapt to the uncertaintie brought about by volatile market . How­ever, participant concluded that thi varied a a function of numerou factor, including the technological complexity and capital inten ity of the indu try, and the ocial and political basi of the network in que tion.

In addition to ocial cientist from everal Taiwane e univer i­tie ,participant included re-earcher from the U.S., Canada,

Brazil, Hong Kong, Malay ia, Singapore and Thailand. A selec­tion of the conference papers is now being revised for inclu ion in a collective volume to be edited by Richard F. Doner (Emory Univer ity) and Frederic Deyo (State Univer ity of New York and University of Auckland, New Zealand).

First Abe Fellow 'Retreat

The Abe Fellow hip program, which promote advanced re earch by cholar and profe -ional on topic of contempo­

rary, policy-relevant concern, held it first annual fellow ' retreat on January 9-12, 1997 in Del Mar, California. The retreat wa tructured around pre enta­tion de igned to expo the fel­low ' work to reaction and cri-

tique of cholar from variou di ciplinary, methodological, the­oretical, and national back round . The weekend al 0 featured a methodology work hop erie that analyzed problem and puz­zle introduced by the fellow , and di cu ion group on frame­work for analyzing Japane e politic and economic . Abe Fellow hip Program Committee member Richard Samuel , MIT, and Takato hi Ito, Hitotsuba hi Univer ity, erved as moderator and di cu ion leader , while Brackette William , Univer ity of Arizona, led the methodology work hop . The Abe Fellow hip Program i admini tered jointly by the SSRC and the American Council of Learned Societie with funding provided by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partner hip.

Labor Markets and Equity in Central America

A Ford Foundation grant to the SSRC enabled the Council and the Facultad Latinoarnericano de Ciencias Sociale , Co ta Rica, to co pon or a July 1-13, 1996 work hop in San Jo e addre ing approache to tudying the di -tributive impact of labor market trend in Central America. Work-hop participant included two

junior re earchers from each of four Central American countrie : Nicaragua, Co ta Rica, Guatemala, and Hondura , as well a one from EI Salvador, who received fellow hip from the Council on the basi of a regionwide compe­tition. Under the direction of Juan Pablo Perez Sainz (FLACSO, Co ta Rica) and Edward Funk­hou er (University of California,

VOLUME 51. N MBER I

Santa Barbara), fellow explored a wide range of methodological i ue pertinent to comparative and longitudinal inve tigation of relation hip between employ­ment and poverty.

Upon completion of the work­hop, fellow embarked on a ix­

month period of clo ely uper-vi ed re earch con i ting of eparate country case studie of

economic policy trend , focu ing on their impact on labor market and the en uing pattern of income di tribution. Ba ed on the mo t exten ive hou ehold urvey data available for the

region to date, each of the tudie will addre the con equence of several variable , including gender, hou ehold ize and age characteri tic , and relation hip to international migration, for pattern of income di tribution in Central America over the past decade. A econd work hop, held on January 20-25, 1997 provided an occasion to review draft of the country case tudie, revi ed ver ion of which will be pub-Ii hed by FLACSO in a volume to be edited by Me r. Perez S~inz and Funkhou er.

Abe Symposium on Security

A daylong public ymposium, "A ia Pacific Security: The Next Question ," wa organized by the Abe Fellow hip Program and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partner hip (CGP) in Tokyo on December 16, 1996.

During the past two decade , ecurity has come to be very

broadly conceived in A ia to include not only traditional ecu­rity i ue and pattern of eco­nomic integration, but uch i ue

MARCH 1997

a energy, population flow , and aid di tribution. Nonethele , exi ting ca e tudie and theoreti­cal approache have proven weak in explaining how conflict i pro­voked and re olved in A ia around uch i ues. The ympo-ium attempted to illuminate ome of the e i ue while focu -

ing on the future a well. Following introductory re­

mark by Yo hihiko Wakumoto, Executive Director, CGP, and Mary McDonnell, Program Director at the SSRC, eight paper were pre en ted before an audience of approximately 100 cholar ,journali t , foundation

official , and the taff members of local emba ie. Paneli t and moderator included a mix of Abe Fellow and Japan-ba ed cholar and journali ts. *

An initial e ion focu ed on the implications of uneven eco­nomic growth and the redi tribu­tion of wealth within the region. Paper in thi e ion examined foreign aid, human right , energy policy, and nuclear power. In the later e ion, pre entation and di cu ion moved from economic i ues to region-wide que tion of labor flow and na cent effort toward developing an A ia Pacific ecurity y tem. In par­ticular, debate was timulated between tho e who favor a bilat­eral approach to ecurity and tho e who are working to develop

• Abe Fellow included: Muthiah Alagappa. East·We t Center; Marie Medi. h. Georgetown University; Deborah Milly. Virginia Tech; Junji Nakagawa. University of Tokyo; Yo hitaka S i. Asahl Sh,mbun; Yoshihide Soeya. Keio University; and Tatsujiro Suzuki, Central Research In titute of Electric Power Industry. Program Gu t included Ronald Morse. Reitaku University. and Robert Neff. Busintss Wuk.

multilateral framework . Co-convener of the sympo-

ium were Richard Samuel , MIT, of the Abe Fellow hip Program Committee, and former member Akira Kojima, Nihon Keizai Shimbun. In their keynote pre entation they highlighted future areas of potential concern: (I) the potential conflict between the de ire of state to urvive and challenge from above and below the tate; the changing concept of overeignty; (2) the implication

of money and knowledge as growing rival to arm a the ource of power within the

region; (3) the need to integrate place into theory; (4) the need to form a community of re earcher able to meet the intellectual challenge of the future; and (5) the implications of either a weak­ened or a trengthened China.

Japan Studies Dissertation Workshop

There are at lea t two critical period in the preparation of a di ertation-the time ju t before heading off to the field and the half year or 0 that follow the return from the field. The e peri­od are marked by elf doubt, ub tantive question , and i ola­

tion. In the fir t in tance, tu­dent wonder whether the re earch will be po ible and in the econd, they are confronted by the need to make en e of pile of data. Student of Japan tudie have a particularly high

rate of non-completion attributed in part to dropping out at the e vulnerable juncture .

A pecial work hop targeted to the need of uch graduate tu­dents i spon ored annually with

ITEMs/I 7

the upport of the Japan Foun­dation. The 1997 work hop was held January 3-7, at the Asilomar Conference Center in Monterey California. Participants included 12 graduate tudent repre enting 10 institutions and everal di ci­pline ranging from political ci­ence to religiou tudie. Four enior faculty· elected the par-

• Gary Allinson, University of Virginia; Theodore Bestor, Cornell University; Su. an MatLwff. Stanford University; and Patricia Steinhoff. University of Hawaii.

18\1TEMS

ticipants from a highly competitive pool of 29 applicant and inter­acted inten ively with them over the four-day period. The work hop wa designed to help tudents who e work eemed e pecially promi ing or ambitiou , who eemed particularly in need of criti­

cal feedback, or who did not attend univer itie with major Japan tudie center.

In preparation for the work hop, tudent wrote e ay de cribing

the intellectual relation hip among their project and reflecting on way in which tho e of other stu­dent had rai ed que tion or pro-

vided guidance in their own work. Work hop exerci e included re earch pre entation and critical di cu ion, individual mentoring, mall group ses ion , a faculty-led methodological eminar, and a group di cu ion

of emergent is ues and problems. The e ion ought to break down the isolation of graduate tudent by creating a sustained

network of advanced tudents and faculty able to provide critical feedback over the cour e of di -ertation preparation, and to

enhance comparative and multi­di ciplinary approache .

VOLUME 51, NUMBER I

1997 OPEN MEETING OF THE HUMAN DIMENSION OF THE

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE COMMU lTV

International Institute for Applied Sy tems Analy i (IIA A), Laxenburg, Austria June 12--14, 1997

SPECIAL PLENARY SESSIONS

Attitudes and Behavior in Global Change Health and Global Change

Busine and Trade Integrated A ment

Environmental Security Governance

Technological Change

This meeting is a follow-up to the First Open Meeting of the Human Dimen ion of Global Environmental Change Community held at Duke University on June 1-3. 1995. It i pon ored by liAS A and the SSRC. with co pon orship from Directorate General XII of the European Commis ion.

Purpose: To bring together the growing human dimen ion research community to promote exchanges of information on current re earch. teaching. and outreach; to encourage networking in this new field; and to attract ocial cientists. human­it. and other not previou Iy involved in human dimen ion work.

Regi tration: To regi ter. please provide name. in titution. addre • telephone/fax. email. di cipline/field of intere t. Fee: $95 (Au trian Schilling. 1.(00). Student fee: $35 (Au trian Schilling 370). DeadJine for receipt of regi tration form and fee: April 15, 1997.

U.S. participants: Please send non-negotiable U.S. $ check payable to the Social Science Research Council and mail with completed regi tration form to: Arun Elhance. GEC. Social Science Re earch Council. 810 Seventh Ave .• New York. NY 10019.

Participants from other countries: Please make out a non-negotiable Austrian Schilling check payable to the International In titute for Applied Sy terns Analysis and mail with completed regi tration form to: Ingrid Teply-Baubinder. I1ASA. A-236 I Laxenburg. Austria.

Accommodations: Room have been reserved for participants at everal hotel in Vienna. Hotel re ervation forms must be received at I1ASA by April 15, 1997. Please provide name. in titution. addre s. telephone/fax. email. discipline/field of interest. AI 0: date of arrival. date of departure. single/double (plea e indicate AlBIC). A: price for single AS 700-850 (double 1.100-1.2(0); B: AS 850-1.000 (double 1.200-1.3(0); C: participant will make own arrangements.

Further information: Ingrid Teply-Baubinder (addres above); phone: +43-2236-807; fax: +43-2236-71313; email: teply@iia a.ac.at. Or contact Carrie Nee at SSRC (email: nee@ssrc.org).

MAROf 1997 lTEMsl19

Recent Council Publications

Transnational Religion and Fading States, edited by Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and James Piscatori. Sponsored by the Committee on International Peace and Security. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997. viii + 280 pages.

Focu ing on the dilution of state sovereignty, thi book examine how the cro ing of tate boundaries by religiou

movements leads to the forma­tion of tran national civil ociety. Challenging the as ertion that future conflicts will be of the "clash of civilization " variety, it looks to the micro-origin of con­flicts, which are a likely to ari e within rather than acro tate boundaries. Thu , the chapter reveal the dual potential of reli­giou movements a ource of peace and ecurity as well as of violent conflict.

20\lTEMS

Featuring an Ea t-West, North­South approach, the volume avoids the conventional and often ethnographic egregation of the experience of other regions from the European and American. Contributor draw examples from a variety of civilization and world religions. They contrast elf-generated movement from

"below" ( uch as Prote tant ec­tariani m in Latin America or Sufi I lam in Africa) with cen­tralized forms of organization and patterns of diffusion from above (such as tate-certified reli­gion in China). Together, the chapters illu trate how religion as bearer of the politics of meaning has filled the lacuna left by the decline of ideology, creating a novel tran national space for world politics.

Su anne Hoeber Rudolph i William Benton Distinguished

Service Profe or of Political Science at the Univer ity of Chicago. James Pi catori is a fellow in Islamic studies, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

Note: See the June/September 1996 i ue of Items for an article by M . Rudolph ba ed on her introduction to this book.

Construir la Democracia: Derechos Humanos, Ciudadania y Sociedad en America Latina, edited by Elizabeth Jelin and Eric Her hberg. Spon ored by the Joint Committee on Latin American Studie (1959-96). Caracas: Editorial Nueva Sociedad, 1996. 242 page . Spani h ver ion of Constructing Democracy: Human Rights. Citizenship and Society in Latin America, published by We tview Press in 1996 and reviewed in the June/September 1996 Items.

VOLUME 51. NUMBER I

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL

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TII~ Council war incorpnra/~d in III~ SIa/~ of /IIinoi.' . Du~mMr 27. 1924. for III~ purpnu of advancing rruarcll in lilt .weial seitncts. Nongo~'~rnmtnlal tutd ""trdisciplinary in nalUrt. lilt Council appoints cOllllllittu.' tJ!scllolars wllicll suk to acllitvt lilt Council'., purpos~ IIImullII lilt R~nualilm of n~w idtas and Iltt lraining of scholars. Tilt aClivilits of lilt Council ar~ supporltd primarily by granu fmm privalt foundalions and gm'unmtnl agtnclts.

DirtCIOrs, 1996-97: PAUL B. BALTE.~. Max Planck In. titute for Human Development and Education (Berlin): ROBERT H. BATE.~. Harvard University: IRI~ B. BERGER. State University of New York. Albany: NA Y BIRO~Au.. Inter·American Development Bank: ALBERT FI~Hu)W. Council on Foreign Relation. : SUSA FI~KE, University of Mal chusetlS. Amherst : SUSA HA so . . Clark University: BARBARA HEY ~. New York University: SHIRLEY LI DE BAUM. The Gmdu te Center. City University of New York: KENNEll! PREwm. Social cience Research Council: JOEl.. SHERZER. University of Texal. Au. tin; B RTON H. SI ER. Princeton University: NEIL SMELSER. Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Science. : KEN En! W. WACHTER. University of California. Berkeley: MICHELLE J. Wllrre. University of Michigan. Ann Arbor.

OJJiCtrS and Slaff: KE Ell! PREWm. P~.'idtnl; KRISll E DAHLBERG. Cllitf Financial OJJictr; GUlRlA KIRCHHEIMER. Editor; ITTY ABRAHAM. JOSH DEWI O. DIA E 01 MAURO. ARUN P. ELHA E, ERIC HERSHBERG. STEVEN HEYDEMAN • Ro. ALD KAS! IMIR. FRA K KESSEL. ROBERT LATHAM. MARY BYR E McDoN. ELL.

Eu..E PERECMAN. SHERI H. RANL~. RAMO TORRECIUfA. Kern) W. WORCESTER.

The Social Science Research Council . upports the program of the Commi ion on Pre. rvation and Acce .. and i. represented on the National Adviwry Council on Pre rvation. The paper used in thi . publication meet the minimum requirement. of American ational Standard for Informal1on Science~ermanence of Paper for Printed Library Material .. ANSI Z39.48-1984. The infinity ymbol placed in a circle indicate. compliance with thl . tandard.

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VOLUME 51, NUMBER I