Book Reviews : America's Capacity to Govern. Some Preliminary Thoughts for Prospective Ad ministrators. By GEORGE A. GRAHAM. (University: University of Alabama Press, 1960. Pp. xiv, 159. $3.00.)

• Date: 01 December 1961
• Published date: 01 December 1961
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296101400423
• Author: George A. Hopper
• Subject Matter: Articles

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acceptance of the Conseil by the Third Republic, though his concern with the
Conseil under the De Gaulle Fifth Republic smacks of afterthought and is more
suggestive than exhaustive. During the chronological period surveyed, the ups and
downs of the Conseil are clearly pointed out. It becomes clear, as our own time
comes closer, that the institution has become accepted, valued, indeed an in-
dispensable part of French democratic structure in the twentieth century.
Mr. Freedeman is not specifically interested in the historical vicissitudes of the
Conseil d’8tat, but rather in the structure of the body and how it functioned
throughout its history. This story he tells admirably in several logically organized
and lucidly presented chapters which constitute the body of his study. Two sec-
tions of the book are spent on the structure of the Conseil, dealing in some detail
first with the period of the Third Republic and then with the period since 1940.
The remaining chapters deal with the legislative, administrative and judicial func-
tions of the Conseil since 1872. Appendices, tables of cases which the Conseil
has handled in its judicial capacity, and a bibliography listing the printed material
relative to the monograph complete the book.
The result of Mr. Freedeman’s effort is an entirely useful and needed work
on an important and, to English readers, little known facet of French political
institutions and democratic evolution. The author, and the press, are to be com~
mended for making this study so clearly and pleasantly available.
CHARLES A. LE GUIN
Portland State College
America’s Capacity to Govern. Some Preliminary Thoughts for Prospective Ad-
ministrators. By GEORGE A. GRAHAM. (University: University of Alabama
Press, 1960. Pp. xiv, 159. $3.00.)
The present-day political scientist, working in a small part of the field, finds
it necessary to keep a proper perspective by returning, from time to time, to a
consideration of some of the fundamental problems of...