Book Reviews : Interest Groups on Four Continents. Edited by HENRY W. EHRMANN. (Pitts burgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958. Pp. xiv, 316. $6.00.)

• DOI: 10.1177/106591296001300323
• Date: 01 September 1960
• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Subject Matter: Articles

809

contemporary

linguistically

oriented

political

philosophers.

So

excellent

an

an-

thology

will,

however,

no

doubt

see

a

future

fourth

edition

when

these

few

over-

sights

may

be

corrected.

This

is

the

finest

anthology

of

its

kind

available

on

the

market

for

con-

temporary

classroom

use.

WHITAKER

T.

DEININGER

San

Jose

State

College

Interest

Groups

on

Four

Continents.

Edited

by

HENRY

W.

EHRMANN.

(Pitts-

burgh :

University

of

Pittsburgh

Press,

1958.

Pp.

xiv,

316.

$6.00.)

Scholars,

since

the

days

of

Aristotle,

have

urged

the

adoption

of

the

com-

parative

analytical

method

as

one

of

the

most

fruitful

approaches

to

the

study

of

politics.

Interest

Groups

on

Four

Continents,

which

resulted

from

a

round-

table

conference

held

by

the

International

Political

Science

Association

at

the

University

of

Pittsburgh

in

1957,

is

an

excellent

example

of

the

value

of

this

approach.

Thirty-one

delegates

from

fourteen

countries

participated

in

the

con-

ference.

Included

in

the

book

is

an

account

of

the

discussion

sessions

of

the

conference

and

the

reports

prepared

by

political

scientists

from

nine

countries:

Australia,

Finland,

France,

Germany,

Great

Britain,

Japan,

Sweden,

the

United

States,

and

Yugoslavia.

Special

credit

is

due

Professor

Henry

W.

Ehrmann

who

expertly

organized

and

edited

the

material

and

who

prepared

a

working

paper

which

served

as

a

guide

to

the

other

contributors

in

the

preparation

of

their

reports.

The

authors

of

eight

of

these

reports

survey

the

principal

interest

groups

in

their

own

countries.

The

author

of

the

ninth

report,

Professor

Samuel

J.

Elder-

sveld,

summarizes

interest-group

research

in

the

United

States

and

raises

several

questions

regarding

research

methodology

in

this

area.

From

reading

the

volume,

one

is

impressed

both

by

the

great

variation

in

the

amount

of

pressure-group

research

among

the

several

countries,

and

by

the

increasing

interest

manifested

in

research

in

this

area

during

recent

years.

For

example,

Professor

Kiyoski

Tsuji

reports

that

&dquo;in

Japan,

the

study

of

pressure

groups ...

had

scarcely

been

under-

taken

before

the

end

of

the

second

World

War,&dquo;

and

Professor

George

E.

Lavau

writes

that

research

on

interest

groups

in

France

is

still

&dquo;very

fragmentary,&dquo;

but

that

French

political

scientists

are

&dquo;beginning

to

be

passionately

interested

in

’pressure

groups’

or

’interest

groups.’

&dquo;

The

information

from

the

several

countries

supports

the

widely

accepted

hypothesis

that

the

political

environment

of

a

country

predetermines

the

rela-

tive

emphasis

interest

groups

place

on

the

various

available

political

tactics

and

methods.

Thus,

although

the

general

aims

of

interest

groups

of

all

countries

tend

to

be

similar,

their

strategic

and

tactical

approaches

are

greatly

influenced

by

such

factors

as:

the

organizational

structure

of

the

government;

the

political

party

and

electoral

systems;

the

level

of

technological

development;

the

social,

economic,

ethnic,

and

religious

composition

of

the

population;

and

the

social

and

political

values

held

by

the

people.

To

illustrate

the

differing

importance

of

such

factors,

it

might

be

noted

that

pressure

groups

in

Great

Britain

generally