Political Cohesion in a Fragile Mosaic, The Yugoslav Experience

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    1985 Book Reviews:Comparative ndOtherAreaStudies 551Each chapter is a worthy example of exactingresearch. Several of the authors also contributedto The Elections in Israel-1977 (Jerusalem:Academic Press, 1980) edited by Asher Arian.

    For that reason as well as the availability of up-dated material the present volume is an excellentsupplement.MARTIN SLANN

    Clemson University

    The Southern Cone: Realities of the Authori-tarian State in South America. By CesarCaviedes. (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman &Allanheld, Publishers, 1984. Pp. x + 212.$34.95.)

    This is an important nterdisciplinaryffort tosynthesizethe natureand prospectsof authori-tarian tates n theSouthernCone,definedheretoinclude southern Brazil as well as Argentina,Chile, and Uruguay.Caviedes s a professorofgeography,which leads him to providean in-terestingexposition of trends in physical andpoliticalgeography s wellas trends n classesandhierarchicalnstitutions.His pleasantwriting tylereinforceshis obvious competence n SouthernConeaffairs.Nonetheless,so much ground s coveredfromvariousdisciplinary erspectiveshatthenarrativedoes tend to devolve into a summaryof theliterature n different opicsrather hanprovidinga genuine nterdisciplinaryynthesis.Examplesoftopics discussedthat do not go beyondthe ex-istingliteraturearethe role of the contemporarychurchin the SouthernCone states, the role ofunions, the tendency owardscentralization, ndthe impactof the nationalsecuritydoctrineandgeopolitics.

    A relatedproblem s thateachof the fourmainchaptersexaminesthe SouthernCone authori-tarianstatesfroma differentperspectivewithoutany clear theoreticalunity between them. TheConclusionmighthaveprovideda synthesis,butinstead s limitedto an impressionistic rognosisof militaryrule and is the weakest part of thebook.Nor does the book's central theme-thedurabilityand pervasiveness f the authoritarianstateas reinforcedbymilitarism-everadequatelyexplainrecurringpressure owardsdemocracynthe SouthernCone. Onlyin the last few pagesofthe Conclusionarethe Brazilian oliticalabertura(opening)andthe newdemocratic overnmentnArgentinafinally mentioned.Becausethe bookdoes purportto explain the natureof politicalrealitiesin the SouthernCone states, this is aseriousdefect.

    The treatment of Argentina is also less thansatisfactory. What have become standardexplana-tions of the alleged innate aggressiveness of theArgentine military are repeated here, whether ex-pressed through an unprovoked attack in 1982 onthe Falklands/Malvinasislandsor through bullyingof Chile over much of the last decade on the BeagleChannel issue. Of course, the record of the Argen-tine military has been severely marred on these ason other matters, but the readeris disturbedthat asupposedlyimpartialanalysisof regionalmilitarismpracticallyacquiresan anti-Argentinebias. For ex-ample, the Argentine cases regarding theFalklands/Malvinas and Beagle Channel issues arenot mentioned, although Argentine conduct ineach case is roundly criticized.The treatment of Brazil poses other problems.Caviedes does present a cogent case for includingsouthern Brazil as part of the Southern Cone, butBrazil is generally given short shrift in theanalysis. This is particularlytroublesome becausethe implications of Brazil's emergence as theleading state in the region are not carefully ex-plored.Although these problems detract from theoverall impact of the book, Caviedes has gonewell beyond previous studies in presenting an in-terdisciplinaryanalysis of Southern Cone political

    trends. It is hoped that others will follow his ex-ample.MICHAEL . MORRIS

    Clemson University

    PoliticalCohesionn a FragileMosaic'TheYugo-slav Experience.By LenardCohen and PaulWarwick.(Boulder, Colo.: WestviewPress,1983.Pp. 186. $18.00,paper.)In attackinga perennially xploredtopic, theviabilityof multinationalYugoslaviaandits con-tinued cohesiveness,Cohen and Warwickhavepooled their expertisein Communistpoliticalsystemsandin legislativebehaviorrespectivelyodevelop an eclectic approach complete withsophisticatedmethodology.First,theydealwiththe country's ntire65-yearexistenceas an independent tate and utilizetheconceptof a "singleentity"(p. xi) andsystem obridgeand transcend hangesn regime, deology,and the various strategiesto manage cultural

    diversityworkedout by nonsocialistandsocialistelites.Second,the authors ocusuponupper-levellegislative lectionsandvotingbehavior,primarilyas sourcesof a quantitative atabase,but also asphenomena worth considering in themselves.Last, they attemptto apply the "entropymea-surement"developedbyStephenColemann The

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    552 The American Political Science Review Vol. 79Measurement and Analysis of Political Systems(Wiley-Interscience, 1975) by utilizing data onvoter choice and turnout in order to "assess thedegree of political incorporation of the variousgeographical units of the political system and itslikelihood of survival" (p. 4). If a state is well-integrated, its "entropy" levels throughout its ter-ritory should be uniform, or at least harmonicallydistributed. The results of their statistical testsand schematic analyses are combined in a final,largely qualitative, chapter that brings theYugoslav experience up to date. The latest quan-titative data used relate to 1969 federal andrepublican elections.Cohen and Warwick claim that the "entropyhypothesis" is most useful in analyzing electoralbehavior in the kingdom between world wars.Nonetheless, conclusions reached do not appearparticularly startling. By the 1920s, "the Yugoslavpolity. . . was demonstrating an increasingresemblance to a collection of distinctsubsystems" (p. 37); moreover, the more re-stricted elections held during the following decade"did not have the intended effect of decreasingthe centrifugal tendencies in the country" (p. 46).The postwar Titoist regime, however, managed toinduce a "process of convergence" enabling "na-tional stimuli such as the purging of the secretpolice. . . [to] produce a common responseacross all regions of the country" (p. 87).More provocative are results obtained whenballot invalidation is used as a measure of dissent:Increased candidate choice during the "liberalera" from 1965 to 1969 did have the effect ofchecking the percentage of invalidation whereverchoice was provided, although this option was in-creasingly used wherever choice had been reducedor remained nonexistent. The authors note thatthe elections of 1969 marked "the end, ratherthan the beginning of pluralistic socialism" (p.98); elections held under the delegate system in1974 and thereafter were controlled by the regimeand "safe" (p. 15).One might doubt the implied contention thatmass electoral behavior during the 1960s, and fur-ther expectations "for a wider expression ofpreferences that would probably not be compati-ble with a one party state" (p. 143), were majorreasons behind the reassertion of party controlover the electoral process. As Cohen and War-wick point out, the repoliticization of the "na-tional question" as evidenced through Serbo-Croatian language disputes, revolt in KosovoMetohija, enlarged autonomy for the Republicanparties resulting in federal governmental stale-mates, and Croatian student unrest, supplied am-ple justification for the leadership's fears thatliberalization had gone too far.In socialist and nonsocialist Yugoslavia, elec-

    tions and the corresponding selection of upper-level legislative bodies have rarely been central inone determination of policy outcomes. Realpolitical power has traditionally been exercised, ifnot at present by professional bureaucratic elitesserving on federal executive and administrativebodies and their republican counterparts, then bypartisan professionals ensconced in the higherparty. An analysis of the operations of these in-stitutions might therefore be more useful in deter-mining whether the country can be governed as anintegrated whole. In socialist Yugoslavia, latitudefor autonomous "legislative" activity has beengreatest at grass-roots levels such as in the com-munes and self-managing economic enterprises.The authors do not study these arenas. Further-more, because they are concerned only with statis-tically measureable aggregates, Cohen and War-wick are unable to explore the particular dynamicsof the electoral contests during the 1960s that weresharply competitive and/or resulted in the electionof maverick deputies.Nonetheless, the terse, historical, and objectivecommentary with which the authors surroundtheir statistical analyses demonstrates the dif-ficulties encountered by Yugoslav elites during thecourse of nation-building. Particularly useful isCohen and Warwick's exposition of the CPY'slabile nationalities policy and their attempt tomatch cultural diversity management strategieswith particular eras of the Yugoslav example.Empiricists might be attracted to this book bythe authors' attempt to apply sophisticated quan-titative techniques to the study of a multiculturaland presently socialist system in development.Others, however, might find the book's qualita-tive parts more cogent and successful than thewhole.

    KAREN ROSENBLUM-CALEMount Holyoke College

    The IndependenceMovementin Quebec 1945-1980. By William D. Coleman. (Toronto:Universityof Toronto Press, 1984.Pp. xii +274. $30.00, cloth; $12.95, paper.)This unpretentiousbook provides a new viewon Quebec's Quiet Revolutionand the ensuingrise of an independencemovementby relating heprovincialgovernment'seconomicpolicies to itscultural policies. According to Coleman, the

    Quiet Revolution resulted from a coalition offorcesdistressed,afterWorldWarII, by the gapbetweentraditionalFrench-Canadiannstitutionsand the demandsof an increasinglyndustrializedeconomy. Before the Quiet Revolution, the pro-vincialgovernmenthad not attempted arge-scale

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