Book Reviews : Parliaments: A Comparative Study on the Structure and Functioning of Representa tive Institutions in Forty-One Countries. By THE INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION. Introduction by Guisseppe Codacci-Pisanelli, former president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963. Pp. xv, 321. $7.00.)
| Author | Donald Barry |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296401700440 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
827
To
be
sure,
he
decries
the
regional
erosion
that
has
eaten
away
at
international
struc-
tures
for
scientific
cooperation.
Yet
he
is
encouraged
by
such
international
organiza-
tions
for
scientific
and
technological
development
as
the
Science
Committee
of
the
North
Atlantic
Council
of
NATO,
the
European
Nuclear
Energy
Agency
attached
to
the
O.E.C.D.
and
the
European
Organization
for
Nuclear
Research
(CERN)
of
UNESCO.
He
encourages
the
development
of
the
European
University
at
Florence
and
the
North
Atlantic
Institute
of
Science
and
Technology.
Haskins
finds
the
seeds
of
a
weakening
science
in
the
Soviet
Union.
He
cites
as
his
major
evidence
the
establishment
of
the
State
Committee
for
the
Coordination
of
Scientific
Research
and
the
resultant
downgrading
of
the Soviet
Academy
of
Sci-
ences.
Within
the
Soviet
Union
he
also
sees
an
inborn
conflict
between
Western
liberal
scientific
tradition,
which
begins
in
Russian
history
with
Peter
the
Great,
and
the
urgent
demands
of
the
contemporary
regime
which
severely
restrict
scientific
research.
In
effect,
the
Soviet
Union
is
fostering
an
imbalance
in
the
total
range
of
scientific
research
which,
Haskins
insists,
is
plural
in
its
foci
and
needs
for
support.
In
his
attempt
to
piece
together
the
meager
information
available
on
Communist
China,
Haskins
reasons
that
China
has
historically
had
a
well-developed
technology
of
its
own,
and
it is
in
the
technological
fields,
utilizing
borrowed
Western
science,
that
China
is
making
its
impressive
strides.
On
the
whole,
Haskins
has
presented
his
topic
in
a
thoughtful
and
sophisticated
way.
One
may
question
his
assumption
of
science
as
a
cure-all;
or
that
science
and
democratic
values
are
inseparable.
He
tends
to
accept
the
existence
of
governmental
agencies
as
prima
facie
evidence
that
nations
are
doing
more
than
paying
lip
service
to
technological
and
scientific
developments.
He
is
not
adverse
to
supporting
science
in
new
nations
by
appealing
to
their
national
pride,
yet
he
sympathizes
with
Monnet
that
there
must
really
be
a
minimum
size,
population,
area,
and
resources
to
justify
the
existence
of
a
nation-state.
MORTON
KROLL
University
of
Washington
Parliaments:
A
Comparative
Study
on
the
Structure
and
Functioning
of
Representa-
tive
Institutions
in
Forty-One
Countries.
By
THE
INTER-PARLIAMENTARY
UNION.
Introduction
by
Guisseppe
Codacci-Pisanelli,
former
president
of
the
Inter-Parliamentary
Union.
(New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger,
1963.
Pp.
xv,
321.
$7.00.)
Some
of
the
factors
behind
the
conception
and
creation
of
this
volume
are
more
important
and
instructive
than
the
work
itself.
The
Inter-Parliamentary
Union,
the
world’s
&dquo;oldest
international
organization
of
a
political
character,&dquo;
includes
repre-
sentatives
from
sixty-four
countries
(in
the
West,
behind
the
Iron
Curtain,
and
in
all
other
major
regions
of
the
world)
in
which
some
sort
of
&dquo;parliament&dquo;
or
legislature
functions
or
at
least
nominally
exists.
Each
year
the
Union
sponsors
a
conference
in
a
different
country
and
continent
at
which
&dquo;some
aspect
of
the
functioning
of
Par-
liament&dquo;
is
discussed.
At
the
1961
Conference
in
Brussels,
the
results
of
a
question-
naire
sent
to
all
member
groups
of
the
Union
were
presented.
The
responses
to
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