In Essence

In Essence | Spring 1991
A Swedish Dilemma

Charles A. Joiner, in Asian Survey (Nov. 1990), Univ. of Calif., Room 408, 6701 San Pablo Ave., Oakland, Calif. 94720.

Communist leaders in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have taken two big steps toward revitalizing their moribund economies. One is to move toward free markets, the other is to surrender the com- munist monopoly of political power. Many analysts believe that both steps are essen- tial for the nations' economic health. But not everyone has agreed. Kim I1 Sung in North Korea a...

In Essence | Spring 1991
Bolshevik Czars

Robert C. Tucker, in The New Re-public (Jan. 21, 1991), 1220 19th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.
Most Western sovietologists have long re- garded the October Revolution of 1917, in which Lenin and his fellow Bolsheviks seized power, as marking a decisive break with the Russian past. But many Soviet intellectuals, free now in the glasnost era to speak their minds, have been taking a very different view, Princeton political sci- entist Tucker reports. As they see it, he says, czarist absolutism and historic...

In Essence | Winter 1991
The Mandate Myth

Robert A. Dahl, in Politi-cal Science Quarterly (Fall 1990), 475 Riverside Dr., Ste. 1274, New York, N.Y. 101 15-0012.

When Ronald Reagan swept into the Oval Office in 1980, politicians and pundits fell over one another declaring his 50.9 per- cent victory a "mandate" to govern-just as they had upon the election of most pres- idents chosen during this century. Indeed, writes Dahl, a Yale political scientist, "it has become commonplace for presidents and commentators alike to argue t...

In Essence | Winter 1991
NO Help Wanted

John Heilemann, in The Washington Monthly (Dec. 1990), 161 1 Conn. Ave. N.W., Wash- ington, D.C. 20009.
Ask a classroom fall of college honors stu- dents where they hope to work after graduation, and they'll likely tell you IBM, or CBS, or Arthur Anderson. Ninety per- cent of them, however, never even con- sider working for the nation's largest em- ployer: the federal government.
Exactly the opposite was true six de- cades ago when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. "Washington was deluged...

In Essence | Winter 1991
Casualties of The Cold War

"the best and the brightest," but "the best of the desperate."
Casualties of "Ending the Cold War at Home" by Morton H. Halperin and Jeanne M. Woods, in Foreign Policy (Winter 1990-91), 2400 NThe Cold War st.N.w., Washington, D.c., 20037-1 196.
The Cold War abroad may be over, but the murky underworld of espionage, state se- crets, and highly classified government projects is still operating at full tilt-right here at home.
So say Halperin and Woods, both of the...

In Essence | Winter 1991
Women In Arms

Beverly Ann Bendekgey, in The G.A.O.Journal (Summer 19901, Rm. 4129, US. General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C. 20548.
During the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, a platoon of American military police ex- changed gunfire with Panamanian soldiers outside of Panama City. What made this firefight different from others, however, was that the platoon was led a woman.
Officially, American women shouldn't have been fighting in Panama at all. Women in a11 branches of the armed forces have been barred...

In Essence | Winter 1991
Tenuous Friendship

Steven L. Spiegel, in The National Interest (Winter 1990-91), 1112 16th st. N.w., Washington, D.C. 20036.

Even before Iraq invaded Kuwait on Au- gust 2, US.-Israeli relations were tense. Is- raelis worried that the United States would abandon them; Americans were dismayed daily reports of violence between Arabs and Jews in Israel's occupied territories. It appeared that the two allies might be nearing a major falling out.
But Spiegel, a political scientist at UCLA, argues that tension is the r...

In Essence | Winter 1991
Bombs Away

Control Today (Nov. 1990), 11 Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.
Last January President George Bush de-
clared that as long as the United States de-
pends on nuclear weapons, it "must be
free to conduct nuclear tests." The Penta-
gon claims that continued testing is
needed to ensure that the more than
20,000 nuclear warheads in the U.S. arse-
nal will work if they are ever needed.
Mark, former head of the Theoretical Divi-
sion of Los Alamos National Laboratory
(1947-73), finds...

In Essence | Winter 1991
After Free Trade

~r-win M. Stelzer, in Commentary (July 1990), 165 E. 56th St., New York. N.Y. 10022.

For Irwin Stelzer, a Fellow at the Ameri- can Enterprise Institute, Japan's high wall of protectionism poses a special problem. As a strong believer in free trade, he should oppose retaliatory U.S. trade barri- ers. After all, he argues, "if the Japanese choose to rely on high-cost homemade products rather than on more efficient American-made alternatives, why should we retaliate denying ourselves their w...

In Essence | Winter 1991
Parting Company

Andrei Shleifer and Rob- ert W. Vishny, in Science (Aug. 17, 1990), 1333 H St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.
The words "hostile takeover" evoke im- ages of ruthless billionaires tearing apart helpless companies and firing workers for sport. 1989, 143 huge corporations that belonged to the mighty Fortune 500 of 1980 had been swallowed up by other
companies. All told, $1.3
trillion in corporate assets
changed hands during the
1980s. What should have
been done to stop the take-...

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