Book Review: International Politics and Economics, The Political Systems of Empires, Bureaucracy and Political Development
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| Author | Laurence Radway |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900410 |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
559
apathy
or
obscurantism
of
the
previous
generations. But a
good
deal
of
what
he
says
is
captious
and
cynical
nonsense,
and
his
analysis
of
the
late
unlamented
Senator
Joseph
McCarthy
is
proof
that
Mr.
Burnham
has
passed
over
beyond
redemption
or
recall:
it
is
as
brief
and
incisive
a
piece
of
casuistry
as
you
may
find.
Pity,
and
one
may
regret
that
so
clever
and
so
acute
an
intellect
has
now
been
driven
into
a
professional
redoubt
from
which
it
can
be
of
small general
service
to
a
society
desperately
in need
of
leadership
against
both
the militant
and
the
feeble-minded
Left
and
Right.
University
of
Toronto
JOHN
C.
CAIRNS
THE
PoLrmcAL
SYsTEms
OF
EMPIRs.
By
S.
N.
Eisenstadt.
1963:
(Galt:
Collier-Macmillan:
xix,
524pp.
$16.50)
BUREAUCRACY AND
POLITICAL
DEVELOPMENT.
Edited
by
Joseph
LaPalom-
bara.
1963.
(Princeton: Princeton
University
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald Saunders.
xiv,
487pp.
$8.50)
The most
important
tendency in
recent
social
science
is
the
em-
phasis
on
modernization
of
traditional
societies.
It
has
encouraged
economists,
sociologists
and
political
scientists
to
cross
the
aisles
that
divide
them, to
glance
back
into
history,
and
to reach
out
toward
area
studies.
After
decades
in
which
relatively
specialized
and
often small-
scale phenomena
have
been
the
object
of
fashionable
research,
it
also
promises
to
restore
the
prestige
of
system
building
in
the
grand manner.
The
books
under
review
reflect
these
trends. Eisenstadt,
a
sociolo-
gist
at
the
Hebrew
University
of
Jerusalem,
presents
an
incredibly
ambitious
study
of
the rise
and
fall
of
twenty-seven
empires.
His
sub-
jects
range
from ancient
Egypt
to the
seventeenth
century
and
from
the
Andes
to
the
China Sea.
Not
unlike
today's
developing
nations,
"historical
bureaucratic
empires"
stand
between
patrimonial
or
feudal
polities
and
modern
states.
They
evidence
limited
centralization,
limited
differentiation
of
political,
economic
and
social
functions,
and
some
"free-floating"
ideational
and
material
resources.
Many
more
details
about
each
are
provided
in
the
one
hundred
pages
of
analytical tables
that
accompany
the
narrative.
While
the
form
of
the argument
is
severely
simple
in its
logic,
the
content
is
intricate
and
subtle.
Eisenstadt
offers
no
simplistic single-
factor
explanations,
no
deterministic
theories.
He
examines
rulers'
poli-
cies,
the
power and
orientation
of
major
social
strata,
and
the
influence
of
economic,
religious
and educational
institutions.
On
the
other
hand
the
very
complexity
and
cautiousness
of
Eisenstadt's
generalizations
may
rob
this important
book
of
the
impact
that
less
sophisticated
studies
enjoy.
In
addition,
readability
suffers
both
from
the
high
level
of
generalization inevitable
in
a
work
that
compresses
so
much
historical
experience
into
so
few
pages, and
from
a
crabbed, obscure
style
that
may
reflect
prolonged
exposure to
contemporary
social
theory.
Most
contributors
to
the LaPalombara
volume
discuss
the
influence
of
bureaucracy
in
the
more limited context
of
a
particular
area
(Russia,
To continue reading
Request your trial