Abstracts
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591297903200201 |
| Published date | 01 June 1979 |
| Date | 01 June 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Abstract |
Skillen, Anthony
Valenzuela, Arturo
Ruling Illusions: Philosophy and
Political Brokers
in
Chile: Local
the
Social Order
David
Earle
Bohn
225
Government
in
a
Centralized
Polity
Steve C. Ropp
242
Vanneman, Peter
The Supreme Soviet: Politics and
the Legislatice Process
in
the
Soviet Political System
C. Bradley Scharf
244
BOOK
NOTES
Raplan, Morton
A.
Isolation or Interdependence?
Today’s Choices for Tomorrods
World
Stephen
G.
Walker
248
ABSTRACTS
hfosEs, CIIARISYA,
AND
COVENANT. By
David C. Rapoport.
The
study is
an
analysis of the Hebrew Bible’s description
of
Moses’ political career and
his
unique status first
as
“liberator” and then
as
“the founder” of Israel’s charismatic and
legal traditions. Its principal argument is that through
hloses
the Sinai Covenant became
Israel’s ultimate source of legitimacy. Charisma and law were perceived as being derived
from it. Their common purpose
xva
to sustain and strengthen loyalties to the Covenant.
hlodern conceptions of charisma and its relations to law and custom stem from Weber who
ostensibly based his view
on
Biblical phenomena. But Weber misconceived the unique position
of
Moses,
misconstrued the importance of the Covenant, and confused derivative with ulti-
mate principles
of
legitimacy in Israel’s political life. Consequently, the typology Weber
developed for examining analogous political phenomena was seriously flawed.
The
essay
concludes with brief suggestions
as
to how
a
better understanding of the Biblical
view
of
hloses might help illuminate charismatic experiences in the contemporary democratic and
hlarxist traditions.
TliE
IMPLEMENTATION
OF
SECTION
5
OF
THE
1965
VOTING RICEITS ACT: A RETROSPECTWE
ON
THE
ROLE
OF
COURTS. By
Gayle Binion.
The
1965
Voting Rights Act (amended
1970, 1975)
has proven to be the most im-
portant federal legislation protecting the right
to
vote. The specific focus here is on the roles
played by the courts in the implementation of Section
5
of the Act, which
was
virtually ig-
nored during the first five years after its passage. It was not until the U.S. Supreme Court
rendered decisions interpreting broadly the reach of Section
5
that compliance began. Three
specific functions
of
the courts are analyzed: first, they were crucial actors in securing com-
pliance when covered jurisdictions refused to submit their electoral changes for preclearance.
Second, they have been important
in
immunizing court-ordered electoral changes (i.e., re-
apportionment) from the preclearance requirements of Section
5.
Third, the decisions
of
the
U.S. Supreme Court
in
1975
and
1976
have placed limitations on the power of the Attorney
General to object to electoral changes which he has reviewed. The paper involves both an
analysis of all of the reported decisions of courts
on
Section
5
and
a
critique of their strengths
and weaknesses.
A CHANGE
OF
DIRECTION:
HABEAS
CORPUS
FRO51
~VARREN
TO
BURGER. By
Neil D. McFeeley.
This paper studies some differences between the Supreme Court of the United States
under Chief Justice
Warren
and that Court today.
Its
thesis is that the Warren Court was
primarily concerned with individual liberty while the Burger Court is more concerned with
the institutional consequences
of
its decisions. The paper explores the Burger Court’s do
cisions
on
cases in the areas of civil rights, voting rights, individual freedoms and criminal
justice and then compares the
two
Courts’ decisions
on
the writ of habeas corpus. The War-
ren Court utilized that writ to protect the due process rights of state defendants while the
Burger Court has retracted the scope of the writ. The recent decisions in
Stone
v.
Powell
and
H’oIff
v.
Rice
indicate the Burger Court’s primary concern with institutional relationships
in derogation of protection
of
individual liberties.
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