ARTHUR W. MACMAHON (Ed.). Federal ism : Mature and Emergent. Pp. xi, 557. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1955. $7.50

• Author: Harold M. Dorr
• DOI: 10.1177/000271625530000123
• Date: 01 July 1955
• Published date: 01 July 1955
• Subject Matter: Articles

134

To

the

French

perfection

of

the

art

of

diplomacy,

Sir

Harold

justly

pays

tribute.

This

perfection

brought

a

centralization

and

certainty

to

diplomatic

methods

which

they

had

lacked

before

and which

they

have

never

enjoyed

since.

American

practice,

on

the

other

hand,

invites

Sir

Harold’s

criti-

cism.

He

feels

it

has

brought

a

good

deal

of

confusion

to

the

art.

We

have

no

cen-

tralization

of

diplomatic

authority;

and

our

&dquo;belief&dquo;

that

it

is

&dquo;possible

to

apply

to

the

conduct

of external

affairs,

the

ideas

and

practices

which,

in

the

conduct

of

internal

affairs,

had

for

generations

been

regarded

as

the

essentials

of

liberal

democracy&dquo;

has

opened

a

veritable

Pandora’s

box.

Finally,

&dquo;although

the

Americans

in

recent

years

have

been

in

process

of

creating

an

admir-

able

service

of

professional

diplomatists,

these

experts

do

not

yet

possess

the

neces-

sary

influence

with

their

own

government

or

public.&dquo;

To

some

of

this

one

can

say

&dquo;amen,&dquo;

but

there

will

be

many

to

feel

that

Sir

Harold

makes

too

much

of

Wilsonian

ideas

or

even

of

American

peculiarities.

He

attempts

to

explain

too

much

of

the

present

evolu-

tionary

stage

of

diplomacy

in

such

terms.

Other

factors

have

been

more

basic,

such

as

the

spread

of

education

throughout

the

world;

inventions

in

communications,

giv-

ing

rise

to

a

widespread

press,

wire

services,

instantaneous

printing,

radio,

and

tele-

vision ;

along

with

a

variety

of

economic

and

social

phenomena

including

what

Ortega

y

Gasset

calls

&dquo;the

fact

of

agglomeration.&dquo;

One

might

add

also

the

emergence

of

the

USSR

as

a

world

power

and,

for

modern

times

anyway,

the

somewhat

unique

prob-

lems

which

it

has

introduced

in

the

normal

intercourse

of

nations.

All

of

these

things

explain

why

the

masses

have

advanced

from

the

background

of

the

international

stage

and

jostled

others-including

the

diplomats

-from

the

footlights.

This

would

have

occurred

whether

Woodrow

Wilson

or

America

had

existed.

Sir

Harold

believes that

diplomacy

should

be

left

to

the

diplomatists.

But

what

is

diplomacy

today?

Decisions

as

to

the

conduct

of

foreign

affairs

now

affect

the

whole

political,

economic,

and

social

life

of

the

peoples

of

the world.

It

is

inconceiv-

able

that

peoples

will

permit

such

decisions

to

be

made

without

the

fullest

discussion,

in

which

they

themselves

participate.

Is

it

less

inconceivable

that

many

will

question

whether

the

implementation

of

these

varied

decisions

can

be

left

to

pro-

fessional

diplomatic

services?

The

answer

obviously

will

lie

in

the

composition

and

management

of

these

services.

Many

skills,

many

talents,

many

experiences

are

involved

in

the

conduct

of

international

relations

these

days.

The

cultural

and

economic

life

of

the

world

is

rich

and

vast.

To

deal

effectively

with

it,

as

well

as

with

political

questions,

requires

something

more

than

the

diplomatic

methods

and

services

of

Louis

XIV.

Sir

Harold

has

done

well

to

remind

the

twentieth

century

that

it

still

has

a

good

way

to

go

before

it

can

claim

to

have

acquired

a

polished

mastery

of

diplomatic

methods

under

modern

conditions.

The

sooner

it

approximates

that

mastery

the

easier

we

shall

all

be-including

those

of

us

engaged

in

the

service

of

diplomacy.

R.

SMITH

SIMPSON

Lourenco

Marques

Mozambique

ARTHUR

W.

MACMAHON

(Ed.).

Federal-

ism :

Mature

and

Emergent.

Pp.

xi,

557.

Garden

City,

N.

Y.:

Doubleday

and

Company,

1955.

$7.50.

Federalism:

Mature

and

Emergent

is

a

symposium-type

publication,

but

one

which

fortunately

avoids

most

of

the

shortcom-

ings

which

too

frequently

plague

publica-

tions

of

this

kind.

The

book

is,

in

fact,

the

edited

report

of

a

carefully

planned

and

well-conducted

symposium.

Twenty-

three

(including

the

editor)

recognized

scholars

prepared

chapters

on

selected

as-

pects

of

the

general

topic.

The

chapters

were

circulated

in

advance

among

sixty-odd

persons

who

attended

a

three-day

con-

ference

&dquo;for

a

quiet

meeting

of

minds.&dquo;

Thereafter

each

essay

was

revised

by

the

original

author.

A

stenographic

record

of

the

conference

was

available

to

the

editor.

This

masterful

planning

and

close

co-

ordination

of

efforts

are

obvious

throughout

the

book.

Much

of

the

unity,

continuity,