Book Review: The Study of Political Behaviour
| Date | 01 October 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1177/004711785900101209 |
| Published date | 01 October 1959 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
helped
to
creat in vital areas. In considering federalism, particularly European
federalism, he illustrates something too often forgotten, that it means
widely
different
and
generally irreconcilable things
to
its advocates. Each solution
advanced holds within it the promise
of
at least one bitter and
bloody"
civil
..
war.
All the essays in the American section provoke fresh thought and throw
neW
light
on
the American domestic problem
and
its impact on her foreign
policY·
An
anniversary address on Benjamin Franklin's diplomacy in 1776 gives rise
to
an
assessment
of
the"
natural"
foreign policy for anew member
of
international
society which
is
pertinent to the issue today. Alook
at
Tocqueville suggests
the
necessity
of
revising easy .. Pilgrim
Dinner"
platitudes
on
Anglo-American
political roots and activities.
But"
we should remember
that
in
moments of
supreme crisis in the Western world it (America) has always hitherto intervened
before it was too late with decisive
effect",
though this
is
not
to say that
an
earlier"
intervention"
might
not
have avoided the crisis,
or
softened its
effe<:t>
S
.
In
conclusion it might be all to the good if
we
took Professor Beloff's
adVIce
and
concentrated
on
reassessing
our
own Western society rather
than
devoting
so much
of
our
attention to developments in the U.S.S.R. By so doing
we
might even regain the initiative
we
have so catastrophically lost.
Termination
of
Membership
of
International Organisations. Nagandra Singh.
London, Stevens. 30/-. .
The
author
has set out to prove by legal argument the legitimacy
of
the claIm
of
Communist China to representation in the United Nations.
To
debar her
from her seat is, he holds, tantamount to atermination
of
her membership and
such termination is aviolation
of
the Charter. The provisions
of
the Charter
and
other constituent instruments regarding the right
of
aState
to
withdraw
and
the right
of
an
international organisation
to
terminate membership.
ar~
clearly
and
logically expounded and analysed. On the China issue Mr.
SlOg
makes three main points: (a) States,
not
Governments, are members
of
an Inter-
national organisation, (b) although individual Governments may apply tests for
recognising new Governments
an
international organisation
is
without
IO~I~
standi to
do
so,
(c)
"to deny, therefore, the effective mouthpiece
of
China,
whlc
is
today the Government
of
Mao-Tse-Tung, its rights
and
obligations
is
to com-
mit
an
international
wrong".
If
the Republic
of
China violated the Charter
by
her invasion
of
Korea the correct legal action would be to expel the State
f~om
membership. Quite
apart
from the special pleading this
is
avaluable contribU-
tion
to
the study
of
the provisions
of
international organisations providing for
the termination
of
membership.
The Study
of
Political Behaviour. D. E. Butler. Hutchinson. 18/-.
Mr. Butler's most timely book says something that badly needed saying to the
latest "
band
of
happy
brothers"
set
on
improving the human condition, that
the
term"
political
science"
as it is all too often understood in the
Anglo-Sa~on
world
is
amisnomer.
"Science"
in this field is aquestion-begging word sInce
it
appears to imply
that
the same degree
of
generality
and
exactness can. be
expected from the employment
of
certain methods in the social as in the phySIcal
sciences. When it
is
pointed
out
that
they have not, so far, been achieved the
answer usually given is that
if
as much money were devoted to this type
of
research
as
is
given say to the production
of
H-bombs
or
chemical engineering, then the
results would be equally good, areply which the
author
takes leave to doubt,
with good reasons. His aim
is
to promote the academic study
of
political be-
haviour,
but
he holds that this can be achieved
by
modest claims
on
its behalf
based on acool, critical
and
dispassionate estimate
of
its uses and its
limita~ion,~'
rather than
on
over-inflated praise
of
the effectiveness
of
.. human engineering J
or
of
the various general systems
of
political study
that
have such loud an
enthusiastic salesmen, particularly in America. .
He
has ahigh regard for statistics where they can be used,
but"
measuring
IS
646
for the measurable" and agreat deal
of
what
we
know about politics cannot be
represented in graph form, one can learn more about the springs
of
political
action from reading de Tocqueville than from the most elaborate statistical
analysis
of
the part played by pressure groups
or
minority blocks. He has an
equally high opinion
of
public opinion polls and favours investigation
of
class
and
educational categories, though he thinks that too often the wrong questions
are asked when trying to gain ageneral picture of, say, why M.P.s are Conserva-
tive
or
Labour.
The belief
is
convincingly expressed that far more relevant information could
be obtained on the actual working
of
the"
real"
political system in despite
of
the Official Secrets Act, the discretion imposed by "the Establishment" and
.. the excessive respect for the feelings
of
the kin
of
deceased statesmen
or
even
of
mere politicians",
if
the political student put the right questions. But the
use
of
alittle imaginative insight can also be recommended as witness the baffled
and
irritated reaction
of
ahigh-ranking civil servant to one
of
Laurence House-
man's Victorian sketches, "How the devil did you come to know that?
".
In
fact politics
is
an art not ascience, and no amount
of
.. human engineering"
will in the end serve to constrain the impulses
of
the human spirit which ulti-
mately in afree society, fashions political behaviour, often unpredictably and in
defiance
of
all probabilities. Nevertheless this
is
agood and informative study
of
the subject.
The Projected Arab Court
of
Justice. AStudy in Regional Jurisdiction with
Specific Reference to the Muslim Law
of
Nations. Ezzeldin Foda, Presentation
by A. H. Badawi, The Hague. Martinus Nyhoff, FI.
19.
London, Batsford, 38/-.
This study
of
the projected Arab Court
of
Justice written
by
aman now
an
official in the Secretariat General
of
the League
of
Arab States, deserves a
warm welcome.
The book
is
divided into three parts plus anumber
of
appendices, an index
and an extensive bibliography. Part I"The Arab League Peace System and the
Court
Idea"
is
areview
of
all the early efforts towards the peaceful settlement
of
disputes between Arab States and adiscussion
of
the place and role
of
the pro-
posed Arab Court
of
Justice.
It
provides awealth
of
detail concerning the various
views and proposals advocated from time to time
by
the different States and some
of
their leading personalities. Part
II
treats
of
the "Ideological Problems in
connection with the Establishment
of
aCourt for the Arab and Muslim World",
and
includes an interesting,
if
controversial, definition
of
the Arab
view
of
sovereignty and adisquisition on the "Islamic International Principles" which
the author suggest such aCourt would be particularly fitted to apply, and in so
doing might "give ahand in codifying the raw material
of
Muslim law and
co-ordinating its so-called principles into asolid and digested instrument". He
makes avaluable study
of
both proposals and requirements for the decentralisa-
tion
of
international justice. Part III entitled "Viewpoints and analysis
of
the
questions raised in the preparation
of
the Draft Statute
of
the Arab Court"
concerns itself chiefly with the problems relating to the nature and jurisdiction
of
the proposed Court and the means for enforcement
of
its orders and decisions
and contains anumber
of
sensible suggestions.
It
is
significant, though hardly to be wondered at, that the best and most
penetrating section
is
that dealing with the problems
of
international justice,
the demands which have been made to enforce it, whether
at
world-wide
or
regional level, and the way in which the Arab Court could best be organised
and integrated. The author
is
at
his least precise and accurate when
he
deals
with Muslim law, asomewhat misty entity in the international field.
The British YearBook oflnternational
Law
1957.
Editor C.H.M. Waldock. London,
New York and Toronto. Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute
of
International Affairs. 65/-.
In the opening contribution to the Volume covering
1957,
Lord McNair
647
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