Book Reviews : Electoral Behavior: A Comparative Handbook. Edited by RICHARD RosE. (New York: The Free Press, 1974. Pp. 753. $29.95.)

• Author: Joseph L. Bernd
• Published date: 01 March 1975
• Date: 01 March 1975
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591297502800118
• Subject Matter: Articles

206

and

ethnic

challenges).

Should

the

trends

apparent

in

these

challenges

continue,

the

author

foresees

a

major

transformation

of

the

international

political

order.

Part

III

(two

chapters)

is

a

concluding

discussion

of

the

dimensions

and

significance

of

the

prospective

world

political

transformation

caused

by

the

under-

mining

of

traditional

stabilizing

forces.

Brown

envisages

&dquo;a

polyarchy

in

which

nation-states,

subnational

groups,

and

transnational

special

interests

and

com-

munities

would

all

be

vying

for

the

support

and

loyalty

of

individuals,

and

con-

flicts

would

have

to

be

resolved

primarily

on

the

basis

of

ad

hoc

bargaining

in

a

shifting

context

of

power

relationships.&dquo;

To

insure

that

the

polyarchic

system

evolves

in

peaceful

directions,

the

world

community-particularly

the

major

powers-must

anticipate

it

and

strengthen

power

management

structures.

Although

nation-states

are

portrayed

as

remaining

the

most

powerful

class

of

actors

in

world

politics,

only

a

global

perspective

will

offer

the

means

of

meet-

ing

future

problems.

In

that

context,

the

author

assesses

such

alternatives

as

regionalism,

international

organization

and

multilateral

diplomacy,

and

United

States

policy

opportunities.

Advanced

students

of

international

relations

will

find

little

new

or

startling

in

this

book.

The

book

represents

rather

a

coherent,

readable

presentation

of

ideas

that

in

one

form

or

another

have

likely

occurred

to

most

mature

readers.

The

strength

of

the

work

lies

in

its

persuasive

review

of

the

&dquo;new

forces&dquo;

in

world

politics.

The

author

is

less

convincing

in

advising

us

on

specific

courses

of

action.

University

of

Montana

FOREST

L.

GRIEVES

Electoral

Behavior:

A

Comparative

Handbook.

Edited

by

RICHARD

RosE.

(New

York:

The

Free

Press,

1974.

Pp.

753.

$29.95.)

Richard

Rose

and

his

fourteen

contributors

have

produced

a

work

of

large

importance

for

the

student

of

psephology

(the

dependent

variable)

and

socio-

economic

indicators

(the

independent

variables).

The

vital

achievement

of

Electoral

Behavior:

A

Comparative

Handbook

is

the

operationalization

for

com-

parative

analysis

of

uniform

indicators

and

modes

of

analysis

in

twelve

countries.

With

exceptions

due

in

some

measure

to

lack

of

vital

data,

each

author

has

examined

the

impact

on

party

choice

of

occupational

class,

trade

union

member-

ship,

religious

identification,

church

attendance,

education,

urban-rural

residence,

regional

residence,

linguistic

differences,

age

and

sex.

Most

chapter

authors

use

tree

analysis,

or

A.I.D.

(Automatic

Interaction

Detector) .

Tree

analysis

is

a

set

of

procedures

which

operates

inductively

and

uses

a

computer

program.

In

this

study,

according

to

Bo

Sarlvik

(author

of

the

chapter

on

Sweden),

it

demonstrates

its

capacity

to

construct

a

composite

classification

of

predictor

classes,

combined

in

an

optimal

manner.

Optimality

here

means

parsimony

in

terms

of

explanatory

factors

and

exhaustiveness

in

terms

of

ability

to

account

for

variance

in

the

dependent

variable,

achieved

through

a

sequence

of

binary

splits.

The

method

thus

produces

at

each

step

a

pair

of

categories

defined

by

a

unique

combination

of