From the Bonn to the Berlin Republic: Can a Stable Democracy Continue?
Lewis J. Edinger and Brigitte L. Nacos examine whether reunited Germany remains a model of democratic stability in the heart of Europe. They hold that Germany's democracy is well suited to adapt to and cope with the challenges posed by domestic changes such as reunification and international developments.

The Rise of the Public Speakership
Douglas B. Harris discusses the increased tendency of Speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives to use media strategies for legislative leadership. He argues that this is a general trend in the nature of the speakership rather than a phenomenon attributable to the present Speaker. He concludes with an examination into the ways in which this trend might affect legislative coalition building and congressional policy making.

The Politics of Reforming Social Security
R. Douglas Arnold analyzes the political difficulties in reforming Social Security in the absence of a short-term crisis. He argues that the chief political problem is to find a way to impose short-term costs on current taxpayers when the benefits of advance funding are exclusively long-term for future retires.

War Powers, Bosnia, and the 104th Congress
Ryan C. Hendrickson looks at the interplay between Congress and the president over war powers. He argues that despite the presence of an ostensibly assertive and highly partisan Congress in foreign policy, the Republicans followed the congressional norm of deferring to the commander in chief in his desire to deploy U.S. forces to Bosnia.

Feminism, Antifeminism, and Electoral Politics in Postwar Nicaragua and El Salvador
Karen Kampwirth reviews the role of gender in postwar elections in Nicaragua and El Salvador. She argues that the campaigns contrasted dramatically, mainly due to differences in the way women were incorporated into the politics of the civil war years.

Domestic Interests in NAFTA Bargaining
William P. Avery investigates domestic political interests in the negotiations and ratification of NAFTA.

Tale of the Presidential Tapes: A Review Essay
Robert A. Divine evaluates two new books based on presidential tapes-those of John F. Kennedy's deliberations with his advisers during the Cuban missile crisis and of Lyndon B. Johnson's telephone conversations during his first ten months in office. He finds both to be revealing but ultimately disappointing.

Forced to Choose: France, the Atlantic Alliance and NATO-Then and Now, Charles G. Cogan
Reviewed by James McAllister

Bargaining with Japan: What American Pressure Can and Cannot Do, Leonard J. Schoppa
Reviewed by Ellis S. Krauss

The Political Economy of Corruption in China, Julia Kwong
Reviewed by Mark A. Groombridge

Party vs. State in Post-1949 China, Shiping Zheng
Reviewed by Lowell Dittmer

The President's Call: Executive Leadership from FDR to George Bush, Judith E. Michaels
Reviewed by G. Calvin Mackenzie

Courts and Congress, Robert A. Katzman
Reviewed by Ronald Kahn

Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History, Rogers Smith
Reviewed by Jennifer Hochschild

The Road to Nowhere: The Genesis of President Clinton's Plan for Health Security, Jacob S. Hacker
Reviewed by Michael S. Sparer

Picking Federal Judges: Lower Court Selection from Roosevelt to Reagan, Sheldon Goldman
Reviewed by Charles Cameron

Truman and the Democratic Party, Sean J. Savage
Reviewed by Allan J. Cigler

Congressional Caucuses in National Policy Making, Susan Webb Hammond
Reviewed by Jeffery C. Talbert

The Dual Agenda: The African-American Struggle for Civil and Economic Equality, Charles V. Hamilton and Dona Cooper Hamilton
Reviewed by Katherine Tate

The Racial Dimensions of American Overseas Colonial Policy, Hazel M. McFerson
Reviewed by Brenda Gayle Plummer

Between the Branches: The White House Office of Legislative Affairs, Kenneth Collier
Reviewed by Matthew J. Dickinson

Bureaucracy and Self-Government: Reconsidering the Role of Public Administration in American Politics, Brian J. Cook
Reviewed by Robert C. Lieberman

Splintered Sisterhood: Gender and Class in the Campaign against Woman Suffrage, Susan E. Marshall
Reviewed by Gretchen Ritter

The Soldier and the Citizen: The Role of the Military in Taiwan's Development, Monte R. Bullard
Reviewed by Wey Hsiao

The Rule of Law in the Arab World: Courts in Egypt and the Gulf, Nathan J. Brown
Reviewed by Elizabeth Thompson

After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building: The Soviet Union and the Russian, Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, Mark von Hagen and Karen Barkey
Reviewed by John-Paul Himka

Casualties of the New World Order: The Causes of Failure of UN Missions to Civil Wars, Michael Wesley
Reviewed by Paul F. Diehl

European Monetary Unification: Theory, Practice, and Analysis, Barry J. Eichengreen
Reviewed by Thomas Oatley

Strategic Geography and the Changing Middle East, Robert E. Harkavy and Geoffrey Kemp
Reviewed by Andrew Flibbert

Gatekeepers of Growth: The International Political Economy of Central Banking in Developing Countries, Sylvia Maxfield
Reviewed by Herman M. Schwartz

The International Dimensions of Democratization, Laurence Whitehead, ed.
Reviewed by Katherine Hite

Building a Palestinian State: The Incomplete Revolution, Glenn E. Robinson
Reviewed by Joost R. Hiltermann

The Agony of Algeria, Martin Stone
Reviewed by Dirk Vandewalle

The Founding Myths of Israel, Zeev Sternhell
Reviewed by Jerome Slater

Crisis and Political Beliefs: The Case of the Colt Firearms Strike, Marc Lendler
Reviewed by David Brian Robertson

Crazy for Democracy: Women in Grassroots Movements, Temma Kaplan
Reviewed by Lynn Stephen

Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work, Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein
Reviewed by Ralph Da Costa Nunez

Morning Glories: Municipal Reform in the Southwest, Amy Bridges
Reviewed by Clarence N. Stone

Neighborhood Politics: Chicago and Sheffield, Larry Bennett
Reviewed by Barbara Ferman

The Lavender Vote: Lesbians, Gay Men, and Bisexuals in American Electoral Politics, Mark Hertzog
Reviewed by Robert W. Bailey

Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work, Kathryn Kish Sklar
Reviewed by Nancy Woloch

The International Origins of the Federal Reserve System, J. Lawrence Broz
Reviewed by Peter A. Gourevitch

Taking on Goliath: The Emergence of a New Left Party and the Struggle for Democracy in Mexico, Kathleen Bruhn
Reviewed by Deborah L. Norden

The Political Economy of Dual Transformations: Market Reform and Democratization in Hungary, David L. Bartlet
Reviewed by Patrick H. O'Neil