Thaw in the Cold War  

Two months ago the largest atomic bomb yet tested in the Nevada desert brought sudden sunrise to cities 300 miles away. Only two miles from the center of the explosion a small town had been built with no purpose other …





British Labor’s Defeat  

The British elections have created only a faint stir. For once, the expected took place largely as expected. A million and a half voters who in 1945 had supported the Labor Party simply abstained from the ballot, thus allowing the …



Asia: The Peasant’s Way  

When the relationship of socialism and peasantry is explored, it is necessary to understand the peasant’s conception of development. It is, however, not easy to trace it. The peasant is not a very articulate being. He has not gone in …



The Price of Non-Conformity  

IT IS A WELL-ESTABLISHED axiom that a state must jealously guard itself against the large-scale disaffection of its citizens. Those whose personal convictions have prevented them from adequately fulfilling their obligations to the state have often been punished as an …





Cain and Humphrey  

Americans for Democratic Action would be a vastly improved organization if it would do two things. The first would be to unfrock the Hon. Hubert Humphrey as its vice chairman. The second would be to give its annual award this …



The Problem of Social Planning  

The past ten years have not been easy for democratic socialist theoreticians. Their economic models, so long shielded from the rough winds of reality, were put to a decisive test during the tenure of the British Labour Government and found …



From Malenkov to Khruschev  

If there is one lesson to be learned from the Malenkov “resignation,” it is that most of the journalistic guesses about the specific power relations in the Kremlin are utterly fruitless. No one really knows. And if the subject were …



Hollywood, Killer of the Dream  

The American Dream enjoins limitless social mobility. Class barriers don’t exist for it, or if they do they are so fluid as to be virtually without meaning. “From each according to his abilities … ” could really stand as its …



The Changing Status of the Negro  

Surely the most curious paradox in recent U.S. history is the breakdown of caste relations between the races. It is curious because it is occurring under official auspices—under the sponsorship of a government not noted, at least in recent years, …



Anxiety in Politics  

Now does it happen that the masses sell their souls to leaders and follow them blindly? On what does the power of attraction of leaders over masses rest? What are the historical situations in which this identification of leader and …





The Public Opinion Detectors  

THIRTY YEARS AGO WALTER LIPPMAN had already noted that the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements and that a revolution was taking place in the techniques of this manufacture. By now the techniques for creating consent have been …



Sects: Lewis Coser Replies  

Geltman’s and Plastrik’s critique of my essay seems to me to be based on a misunderstanding of what a typological procedure aims to accomplish. Social scientists can use concepts which are closely geared to the empirical and historical reality at …




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