Book Notes
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1939.tb03028.x |
| Date | 01 January 1939 |
| Published date | 01 January 1939 |
Book
Notes
Recent Experiments in Constitution Making.
B.
M.
Sharma, Lucknow, 1938.
Pp.
361.
THE
title of this book
is
not a good guide to its contents. The reader who takes it
up hoping to find
a
discussion of post-war constitutions will be disappointed.
What
he will find
is
a
sympathetic account of the growth of Fascism in Italy and
Germany, of the development of Irish nationalism into
its
most recent expression-
the constitution
of
Eire-and
a
brief summary of constitutional changes in the
U.S.S.R. He will also find reports of such matters of current or recent inter-
national interest and importance as the Czech crisis, the conquest of Abyssinia,
the Italian invasion of Spain and the German invasion of Austria. The connection
between these last and that part of the book which bears more relation to its title
is
suggested by the
first
chapter, an account
of
the
“
Haves versus the Have-nots
”
and
“
democracies versus dictatorships.”
For any Indian or other student who has not read an account
of
Irish
nationalism, or perused the newspapers of the last three years, this book will
doubtless be of value.
It
will also give him an introductory account of the better-
known facts connected with the growth of Fascism. That there is
a
theme in
it to provide interest or enlightenment is not apparent. That there might have
been is of course obvious. What are the common features of modem dictatorship?
To what defects in democracy are they the sequel? Along what lines is hope to
be found of
a
rational synthesis which may provide the basis
of
an improved system
of
government, national or international?
All
these and many other questions
immediately suggest themselves for the reader’s-and the author’s-further con-
sideration.
H.
R.
G.
G.
South
African Journal
of
Economics.
Vol.
6,
No.
3.
September, 1938.
As
might have been expected, the publication of the March and June issues of this
Journal
of
wholesale criticisms
by
economists
of
the various Agricultural Mar-
keting Schemes in the Union has not passed without comment. The September
issue contains
two
articles in defence of the Government’s policy. The
first
is in
the form of
a
paper read before the Economic Society of the University
of
Cape
Town by Mr.
P.
R.
Viljoen, the Secretary to the Department
of
Agriculture, who
observed in opening that though by virtue
of
his presence he might forfeit the
usual immunity from criticism enjoyed bv public servants he hoped to gain the
equal assuring privileges enjoyed in professional discussion. The other paper is
by Mr.
J.
R.
McLoughlin, the General Secretary
of
the Livestock and Meat
Industries Control Board. The arguments in general are those usually advanced
in favour
of
planning as against individual trading, though Mr. McLoughlin goes
rather further and bases himself not only on these general grounds but also
on
the
allegation that the agricultural community are already paying vast subsidies owing
to the protection of secondary industries and
of
labour.
To
these papers Professor
C.
S.
Richards contributes
a
short reply in which he
deals
with the particular facts, assertions and arguments produced by his opponents.
I11
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