Book Reviews : Constitutional Politics: The Political Behavior of Supreme Court Justices and the Constitutional Policies that They Make. By GLENDON A. SCHUBERT. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1960. Pp. xvi, 735. $8.50.)
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296101400440 |
| Date | 01 December 1961 |
| Published date | 01 December 1961 |
| Author | Gerald I. Jordan |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
995
at
the
beginning
of
the
third
and
final
volume.
The
author
sketches
in
a
few
pages
the
penetration
of
the
Japanese
into
Southeast
Asia
during
the
sixteenth
century,
perhaps
one
of
the
most
interesting
and
least
studied
aspects
of
pre-
modern
Japanese
history.
However,
this
problem
falls
outside
the
limits
of
the
author’s
approach
to
the
period
with
which
he
is
concerned.
I
would
also
quibble
over
his
unqualified
use
of
the
term,
&dquo;industrial
labor,&dquo;
in
reference
to
a
period
in
which
there
was
no
industrialization
as
that
term
is
usually
under-
stood.
I
must
temper
these
negative
criticisms
with
praise
for
the
excellence
and
the
utility
of
the
maps,
the
bibliography,
the
glossary,
the
appendixes,
and
the
unhackneyed
illustrations.
No
greater
compliment
can
be
paid
this
volume
than
to
say
that
it
main-
tains
the
high
level
of
excellence
that
has
characterized
the
author’s
work
since
the
appearance
of
his
first
major
study
of
Japanese
history
thirty
years
ago.
The
author’s
erudition
and
careful
research
into
the
documetnary
materials
of
the
age
he
describes
have
provided
a
mass
of
factual
material
which
in
its
specific
de-
tails
may
on
occasion
be
somewhat
less
than
gripping
in
interest
but
which
in
total
constitutes
a
portrait
of
a
society
in
a
past
age.
The
writing
is
a
constant
joy;
not
only
is it
easy
and
graceful,
but
it
demonstrates
anew
the
author’s
mastery
of
the
writing
of
history
as
a
literary
art.
Above
all,
the
author
gives
us
something
which
is
within
the
power
of
only
a
rare
few
to
bestow:
the
opportunity
to
observe
great
but
modest
wisdom
and
keen
but
humble
intellect
working
harmon-
iously
together
to
analyze,
to
order,
and
to
interpret
the
movement
of
a
society
through
time.
University
of
Washington
JOHN
M.
MAKI
Constitutional
Politics:
The
Political
Behavior
of
Supreme
Court
Justices
and
the
Constitutional
Policies
that
They
Make.
By
GLENDON
A.
SCHUBERT.
(New
York:
Holt,
Rinehart
and
Winston,
Inc.,
1960.
Pp.
xvi,
735.
$8.50.)
Professor
Schubert’s
Constitutional
Politics
is
the
first
casebook
to
apply
sophisticated
techniques
of
behavioral
analysis
to
the
decisions
of
the
Supreme
Court.
It
is
a
perceptive
and
a
provocative
contribution
to
the
field.
As
the
author
indicated,
his
primary
purpose
in
writing
this
casebook
is
to
reveal
the
political
significance
of
judicial
behavior
-
both
in
motivation
and
in
social
effect.
That
purpose,
the
author
suggests,
implies
the
use
of
a
variety
of
methods -
political,
psychological,
sociological,
administrative
and
quantitative.
Faced
with
the
neces-
sity
of
synthesizing
these
obviously
complex
methods,
apparently
Professor
Schubert
decided
to
emphasize
the
&dquo;ecological&dquo;
approach
to
dynamic
equilibrium
analysis.
He
thinks
of
the
Supreme
Court
as
a
&dquo;political
group,&dquo;
and
suggests
that
its
behavior
should
be
analyzed
in
terms
of
&dquo;group
theory,&dquo;
&dquo;role
theory,&dquo;
&dquo;elite
theory,&dquo;
etc.
He
sees
the
function
of
the
Court
as
one
of
decision-making.
Its
fundamental
role
is
to
maintain
a
dynamic
equilibrium
among
the
con-
flicting
interests
of
various
groups
-
between
one
department
of
government
and
another,
between
the
nation
and
the
states,
and
between
government
and
the
majority
on
the
one
hand
and
minorities
and
individuals
on
the
other.
It
seems
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