Göran Therborn. What Does the Ruling Class Do When it Rules? Pp. x, 290. London: New Left Books, 1978. $14.95

• Author: David H. Katz
• Published date: 01 January 1979
• Date: 01 January 1979
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271627944100145
• Subject Matter: Articles

224

and

legal

problems

involved

in

defining

violence,

he

focuses

primarily

on

acts

of

physical

force

directed

against

people,

excluding

crimes

of

acts

against

property.

In

addition

to

the

philosophical

and

legal

problems

involved

in

defining

vio-

lence,

there

is

the

very

serious

problem

of

sampling.

Strasburg

does

not

claim

to

have

a

comprehensive

study

of

juvenile

violence.

His

study

is

limited

to

violent

acts

committed

by

juveniles

who

have

ben

arrested

and

brought

to

court.

Even

this

data

on

court

cases,

which

repre-

sents

only

a

portion

of the

larger

problem

of

juvenile

violence,

is

not

always

clear

or

complete.

The

author

collected

an

enormous

amount

of

data.

One

of the

positive

features

of

the

book

is

the

way

in

which

he

has

organized

the

material

and

the

extent

to

which

he

has

been

successful

in

distilling

and

presenting

the

salient

features

of

his

data

and

his

findings.

Data

collected

in

the

Vera

study

on

the

common

characteristics

of

violent

delin-

quents

were

consistent

with

the

findings

of

other

descriptive

studies.

Violent

de-

linquents

are

most

likely

to

be

minority

group

males

who

live

in

lower

class

or

slum

neighborhoods

in

the

inner

city.

They

tend

to

come

from

broken

homes,

have

poor

relationships

with

their

parents,

and

they

are

usually

school

failures.

The

Vera

data

raised

some

very

im-

portant

questions,

as

have

other

studies,

about

the

juvenile

justice

system.

Stras-

burg

reported

ineffective

interventions

to

end

juvenile

violence

after

the

juvenile

had

been

adjudicated

of

a

vio-

lent

crime.

The

most

common

correc-

tional

responses,

probation

or

training

school,

appeared

to

have

&dquo;little

or

no

constructive

impact

on

subsequent

crim-

inal

behavior&dquo;

(p.

183).

Strasburg

goes

on

to

point

out

that

treatment-oriented

programs

have

generally

been

closed

to

violent

juvenile

offenders.

Strasburg

notes

that

&dquo;on

the

whole

the

evidence

gathered

in

the

course

of

this

study

supports

a

conclusion

that juvenile

violence

is

a

serious

and

growing

prob-

lem&dquo;

(p.

179).

His

insightful

analysis

of

the

Vera

data

is

useful

for

our

under-

standing

of the

problem

of

juvenile

violence

and

especially

helpful,

in

my

opinion,

in

suggesting

some

priorities

in

the

research

that

is

needed

on

this

problem.

Perhaps

the

greatest

value

of

this

study

is

in

the

potential

it

provides

for

suggesting

important

changes

in

the

correctional

system.

Senator

Birch

Bayh,

Chairman

of

the

Subcommittee

on

the

Constitution,

in

his

foreword

to

Violent

Delinquents,

states

that

&dquo;much

of

the

information

presented

in

Mr.

Strasburg’s

report

to

the

Ford

Foundation

reflects

the

need

for

a

long

awaited

reform

of

the

juvenile

justice

system

(p.

x).

JAMES

L.

PAUL

University

of

North

Carolina

Chapel

Hill

GÖRAN

THERBORN.

What

Does

the

Ruling

Class

Do

When

it

Rules?

Pp.

x,

290.

London:

New

Left

Books,

1978.

$14.95.

Intent

on

searching

out

the

alleged

&dquo;contradictions&dquo;

of

capitalism,

Marxists

have

long

overlooked

contradictions

within

their

own

world

view.

Prominent

among

these

has

been

the

contradic-

tion

between

a

concern

with

political

power

as

a

revolutionary

goal

and

the

virtual

absence

of

a

serious

Marxian

literature

on

politics.

Responsibility

for

this

puzzling

incongruity

partly

lies

with

Marx

himself:

often

brilliantly

provoca-

tive,

Marx’s

own

political

writings

are

nonetheless

scattered

and

fragmentary,

thereby

encouraging

a

&dquo;vulgar&dquo;

predis-

position

towards

economic

reductionism

among

his

followers.

Ignoring

the

dia-

lectical

character

of

politics,

Marxist

in-

tellectuals

have

tended

to

adopt

a

Leninist

perspective:

the

complexities

of

bourgeois

political

institutions

being

consistently

undervalued

in

favor

of

a

tactical

emphasis

on

revolutionary

mo-

bilization.

Fortunately,

this

narrow

focus

is

now

being

repudiated

by

younger

radical

scholars,

including

the

author

of

the

book

under

review.

Freely

admitting

er-

rors

and

omissions,

Therborn

sets

out

to

specify

significant

research

areas

and

to

provide

a

theoretical

framework

ade-

quate

to

accommodate

future

empirical