The Crisis of Competence in Our National Government
James L. Sundquist attributes the "crisis of confidence" identified by President Carter to a "crisis of competence" in government. Sundquist argues that recent changes such as the disintegration of political parties, the haphazard methods of selecting presidents, the rejection by the Congress of presidential leadership, the fragmentation of the Congress itself, and the gradual deterioration of administrative capability, all militate againstgovernmental effectiveness.

A Resurgent Congress and the Imperial Presidency
Thomas E. Cronin assesses the argument that Congress has successfully reasserted itself in national policymaking and seriously curbed the "imperial presidency." He finds that Congress has indeed become more involved in national policymaking and that constraints have been added to the way presidents exercise their powers. Cronin concludes that whatever reassertion has taken place may not last and that, in any event, the presidency has not been weakened as much as some commentators have claimed.

The Politics of Nuclear Power: A Subgovernment in Transition
James R. Temples analyzes the federal government's role in the development of the nuclear power industry and the licensing of commercial nuclear power plants. He sees evidence of a gradual long-term shift from a "distributive to a "regulatory" posture toward the nuclear industry.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development
Ross B. Talbot reviews the creation of the newest of the United Nations's specialized agencies -- the International Fund for Agricultural Development. His analysis focuses on why such an organization was proposed, how the complicated negotiations for its adoption were consummated, and how its unique triumvirate decision-making procedures work.

Lasers, Charged-Particle Beams, and the Strategic Future
Donald M. Snow

Eavesdropping on Justice: A Review Essay
[ Citation ][ Article ]

Foreign Policy by Congress, Edward Weisband and Thomas W. Franck
Reviewed by H. Bradford Westerfield

The White House Years, Henry Kissinger
Reviewed by Walter LaFeber

The Crises of Power: An Interpretation of United States Foreign Policy During the Kissinger Years, Seyom Brown
Reviewed by Richard H. Ullman

Endgame: The Inside Story of SALT II, Strobe Talbott
Reviewed by Robert C. Gray

Presidential Decisionmaking in Foreign Policy: The Effective use of Information and Advice, Alexander L. George
Reviewed by Richard M. Pious

The Nuclear Question: The United States and Nuclear Weapons, 1946-1976, Michael Mandelbaum
Reviewed by Robert J. Bresler

Limited War Revisited, Robert E. Osgood
Reviewed by Philip W. Dyer

On Every Front: The Making of the Cold War, Thomas G. Paterson
Reviewed by Robert A. Divine

The Neoconservatives: The Men who are Changing America's Politics, Peter Steinfels
Reviewed by Alonzo L. Hamby

Rockefeller of New York: Executive Power in the Statehouse, Robert H. Connery and Gerald Benjamin
Reviewed by Clifton McCleskey

Truman, American Jewry, and Israel, 1945-1948, Zvi Ganin
Reviewed by Mark H. Lytle

Financial Invasion of the U.S.A.: A Threat to American Society?, Earl H. Fry
Reviewed by Renato Mazzolini

Civil Rights and the Crisis of Liberalism: The Democratic Party 1945-1976, John Frederick Martin
Reviewed by James L. Sundquist

Ideological Coalitions in Congress, Jerrold E. Schneider

Promise and Performance: Carter Builds a New Administration, Bruce Adams and Kathryn Kavanagh-Baran
Reviewed by Larry Berman

The Past and Future of Presidential Debates, Austin Ranney
Reviewed by Richard L. Rubin

Geography of Elections, Peter J. Taylor and R. J. Johnston
Reviewed by Scott Keeter

From Brown to Bakke: The Supreme Court and School Integration: 1954-1978, J. Harvie Wilkinson
Reviewed by John A. Davis

Catholics and American Politics, Mary T. Hanna
Reviewed by Stephen M. David

Black Detroit and the Rise of the UAW, August Meier and Elliot Rudwick
Reviewed by Daniel J. Leab

International Conflict in an American City: Boston's Irish, Italians, and Jews, 1935-1944, John F. Stack, Jr.
Reviewed by Charles H. Trout

Nuclear Power and the Public Safety: A Study in Regulation, Elizabeth S. Rolph
Reviewed by James R. Temples

Policymaking for Social Security, Martha Derthick
Reviewed by Dona Cooper Hamilton

Evaluating Federal Social Programs: An Uncertain Art, Sar A. Levitan and Gregory Wurzburg
Reviewed by Patrick J. Hennigan

The Process is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court, Malcolm M. Feeley
Reviewed by Jean Bickmore White

Schooled to Order: A Social History of Public Schooling in the United States, David Nasaw
Reviewed by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann

The New Deal and the Unemployed: The View from New York City, Barbara Blumberg
Reviewed by Ronald H. Bayor

The Politics of Opposition: Antifederalists and the Acceptance of the Constitution, Steven R. Boyd
Reviewed by Noble E. Cunningham, Jr.

Russia and the United States, Nikolai V. Sivachev and Nikolai N. Yakovlev
Reviewed by Cynthia A. Roberts

Soviet Bargaining Behavior: The Nuclear Test Ban Case, Christer Jonsson
Reviewed by Steven Sestanovich

The European Alternative: An Inquiry into the Policies of the European Community, Ghita Inonescu
Reviewed by Linda B. Miller

The Struggle for Greece, 1941-1949, C. M. Woodhouse
Reviewed by Harry J. Psomiades

The United Arab Emirates: Unity in Fragmentation, Ali Mohammed Khalifa ; The Creation of Qatar, Rosemarie Said Zahlan
Reviewed by Lisa S. Anderson

Politics between Departments: The Fragmentation of Executive Control in Australian Government, Martin Painter and Bernard Carey
Reviewed by Francis E. Rourke

Multinationalism, Japanese Style: The Political Economy of Outward Dependence, Terutomo Ozawa
Reviewed by T. J. Pempel

International Economic Sanctions: The Cases of Cuba, Israel, and Rhodesia, Donald L. Losman
Reviewed by Elliot Zupnick

Cuba: Order and Revolution, Jorge I. Dominguez
Reviewed by Peter Winn

Mexican Workers in the United States: Historical and Political Perspectives, George C. Kiser and Martha Woody Kiser
Reviewed by Gilbert Cardenas

Suburban Tokyo: A Comparative Study in Politics and Social Change, Gary D. Allinson
Reviewed by Edward Seidensticker

Images of Conflict, Albert F. Eldridge
Reviewed by Lewis A. Coser