Book Reviews : Federalism, Mature and Emergent. Edited by ARTHUR W. MACMAHON. (New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1955. Pp. xi, 557. $7.50.)

• Published date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295600900137
• Author: David Fellman
• Date: 01 March 1956
• Subject Matter: Articles

204

little

about

the

United

States.

Rather,

Professor

Whitaker

describes

the

land

and

people

of

Argentina

and

the

historical

development

of

this

im-

portant

Latin-American

state,

with

the

greater

part

of

the

book

devoted

to

Per6n

and

Peronismo.

Only

two

small

chapters

totaling

thirty

pages

discuss

Argentina’s

relations

with

the

United

States

and

the

prospects

for

the

future.

Professor

Whitaker’s

book

could

more

accurately

have

been

entitled

&dquo;Understanding

Argentina,&dquo;

for

it

tries

to

explain

why

the

country

de-

veloped

a

form

of

government

under

Peron

which

is

neither

democratic

nor

totalitarian

although

containing

features

taken

from

both

systems.

Those

who

seek

to

understand

just

what

Per6n’s

&dquo;third

position&dquo;

between

Moscow

and

Washington

really

is

will

find

this

book

of

value.

Professor

Whitaker

clearly

explains

how

Per6n

organized

his

regime

upon

two

bases:

the

army

and

a

government-controlled

trade-union

movement.

By

playing

these

two

forces

off

against

each

other,

and

both

against

all

other

groups

in

Argentine

society,

he

concentrated

total

power

in

his

own

hands,

yet

at

the

same

time

kept

a

substantial

mass

following

which

Professor

Whitaker

thinks

is

a

majority

of

the

total

population.

It

is

to

be

regretted

that

Professor

Whitaker

did

not

devote

more

attention

to

how

Argentina

is

affected

by

the

activities

and

policies

of

the

United

States

government

and

the

great

international

corporations

whose

headquarters

are

in

the

United

States

and

Western

Europe.

Nor

does

he

adequately

explain

why

Per6n’s

&dquo;revolution&dquo;

has

done

practically

nothing

to

change

the

system

of

large

landholdings

to

which

certain

scholars

attribute

much

of

Argentina’s

difficulty

in

creating

stable

democratic

gov,

ernment.

Despite

these

criticisms

this

is

a

valuable

book.

It

is

extremely

well

written

and

manages

to

encompass

a

great

deal

of

economic

and

political

history

within

relatively

few

pages.

A

nine-page

reading

list

synthesizing

the

literature

available

to

those

interested

in

further

study

of

Argentina

and

a

ten-page

index

increase

the

value

of

the

book.

University

of

Florida.

HARRY

KANTOR.

Federalism,

Mature

and

Emergent.

Edited

by

ARTHUR

W.

MACMAHON.

(New

York:

Doubleday

&

Co.,

Inc.

1955.

Pp.

xi,

557.

$7.50.)

This

hefty

volume

consists

of

a

number

of

papers

read

by

academic

scholars

to

a

select

audience

of

academic

scholars,

held

together

by

four

astute

introductory

essays

written

by

the

editor,

Professor

Arthur

W.

Macmahon.

Being

a

symposium,

the

book

is

often

repetitive

and

wordy,

and

lacks

the

coherence

and

unity

that

one

may

expect

to

find

in

the

work

of

a

single

mind.

Furthermore,

the

essays

are

for

the

most

part

geared

to

a