Physiologie De La France by Yves LaulanReview by: Fritz SternForeign Affairs, Vol. 56, No. 2 (Jan., 1978), pp. 453-454Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20039888 .

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RECENT BOOKS 453

THE MILITARY COUP D'?TAT AS A POLITICAL PROCESS: ECUADOR, 1948-1966. By John Samuel Fitch. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1977, 243 pp.

$15.00. This analysis, academic in tone and substance, of the military role in the

turbulent days of Velasco Ibarra and Carlos Arosemena, offers a theoretical model of the process of military decision-making in situations of political crisis.

DEVELOPMENT PLANNING IN ECUADOR. By R. J. Bromley. London: Latin American Publications Fund, 1977, 116 pp. (London: Grant & Cutler, distributor, ?2.80).

A short but interesting volume of social commentary, with emphasis on such

topics as internal inequalities, planning, the effect of recent economic changes, and foreign dependence.

CHILE 1970-1973: LECCIONES DE UNA EXPERIENCIA. Edited by Freder ico G. Gil, Ricardo Lagos and Henry A. Landsberger. Madrid: Editorial

Tecnos, 1977,470 pp. These essays, generated by a 1975 University of North Carolina conference,

are concerned with themes pertaining to the Allende administration, the causes of its failure, the subsequent regime, and the effects of Chilean events on

developments elsewhere. Many of the contributors are former Allende officials.

Western Europe

Fritz Stern

FRENCH DEMOCRACY. By Val?ry Giscard d'Estaing. New York: Doubleday, 1977, 126 pp. $6.95.

A remarkable tour d'horizon, covering past and inadequate ideologies and

providing a blueprint for a better future, a modern democratic society in which

pluralism and a higher quality of life would prevail. There are bits of Elys?e eloquence: "Justice demands ending of poverty and privilege and discrimina tion." But how? Will the statesman attain some of what the moralist-critic

proposes?

LE RENONCEMENT: DE LA FRANCE D?FENDUE ? L'EUROPE PROT? G?E. By Pierre Gallois. Paris: Pion, 1977, 279 pp. Fr. 38.

In this second volume of a new series of Gaullist tracts, a French general denounces Giscard's defense policies, which, so the argument runs, abandoned (in part under German influence) de Gaulle's insistence on absolute French independence. A simple polemic on a complex subject.

PHYSIOLOGIE DE LA FRANCE. By Yves Laulan. Paris: Cujas, 1977, 290 pp. Fr. 32.

The premise of this brief, realistic and provocative book is that French

society and policy must adapt to the end of economic growth. He has some

harsh, never shrill, things to say to his compatriots: the French army would have difficulty countering a Moroccan or Algerian invasion of Provence; France is not the highly cultured country it imagines itself to be; its police have a not

unwarranted reputation for brutality. Serious stocktaking and interesting thoughts on reform, by a former official of NATO who is currently an academic.

LES FRAN?AIS AU POUVOIR? By Jean-Denis Bredin. Paris: Grasset, 1977, 234 pp.

A spirited essay on the unpolitical Frenchman, whose only political act is the occasional and indifferent vote. Barbed comments on the foibles of the French, especially of the Right.

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454 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

LES MAITRES PENSEURS. By Andr? Glucksmann. Paris: Grasset, 1977, 321 PP LA BARBARIE A VISAGE HUMAIN. By Bernard-Henri L?vy. Paris: Grasset, 1977,240 pp.

The much-discussed philosophers of "apr?s-mai," who teach a new libertarian

dispensation and passionately reject Marx, "Marxomanie" (Glucksmann) and the intellectual traditions that led to Marxism of any "face." Significant tracts for our times ?but will they wean people from their long-cherished beliefs?

"EUROCOMUNISMO" Y ESTADO. By Santiago Carrillo. Barcelona: Editorial

Cr?tica, 1977,218 pp. The Spanish Communist leader's exposition of Eurocommunism as an

autonomous strategic concept born of particular experience and concrete

reality and still in the process of elaboration. Reading it leaves one in no doubt as to why Moscow felt compelled to denounce Carrillo. But neither are non

Marxists likely to derive much comfort from his analysis and prescriptions. J.C.C.

THE ITALIAN ROAD TO SOCIALISM: AN INTERVIEW WITH GIORGIO NAPOLITANO OF THE ITALIAN COMMUNIST PARTY. By Eric Hobs bawm. Westport (Conn.): Lawrence Hill, 1977, 118 pp. $5.95 (Paper, $3.95).

An English Marxist historian sympathetically interviews a leading intellectual of the Italian Communist Party: the discussion ranges broadly and gives an

important insight into the thought and policy of the PCI. In part, Napolitano offers variations on Togliatti's statement: "From democracy we want to take

nothing; we want to add to it many things." Predictably, a rather sanguine or tame view of the PCI emerges.

PORTUGAL: THE IMPOSSIBLE REVOLUTION? By Phil Mailer. New York: Free Life, 1977, 399 pp. $12.95 (Paper, $5.95).

An evocative, bitterly partisan diary of the Portuguese revolution, written from a radical-Utopian perspective. The enemy is any type of organization or

presumption of leadership. The book affords a good view of the mood of the

time, of the multiplicity of leftist factions, and of the social problems that bedevilled the revolution.

LLOYD GEORGE: THE GOAT IN THE WILDERNESS. By John Campbell. Totowa (N.J.): Rowman and Littlefield, 1977, 383 pp. $19.50.

An eloquent biography of Lloyd George out of power and still at the heart of British politics: his "spectre haunted the Cabinet Room of his successors like

Banquo's ghost." The author laments that petty politics prevented his much admired subject from returning to leadership and realizing his bold vision of needed reforms.

BRITISH LABOUR AND HITLER'S WAR. By T. D. Burridge. Levittown

(N.Y.): Transatlantic Arts, 1977, 206 pp. $10.95. A fine short study, based on private papers and the recently opened records

of Churchill's government, of Labour's role in formulating Britain's wartime

policies, especially toward Germany ?

which, the author argues, was far more substantial than Churchill or subsequent historians have acknowledged.

THE BREAK-UP OF BRITAIN. By Tom Nairn. Atlantic Highlands (N.J.): Humanities Press, 1977, 368 pp. $15.00.

A Marxist analysis of British ills ("The elements of fatality in Great Britain's current crisis" include such symptoms as "the cringing Labour conservatism of

1974-6") but also a wide-ranging critique of the contemporary world and

contemporary thought. A literate and useful polemic.

SICHERHEITSPOLITIK VOR NEUEN AUFGABEN. Edited by Karl Kaiser and Karl Markus Kreis. Frankfurt/Main: Metzner, 1976, 444 pp.

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