Peter Gourevitch

First published in 1980, Paris and the Provinces explores why reforms of central-local relations in France have been so ineffectual. Professor Gourevitch discovers the cause in party politics and personal rivalries. The struggle for dominance among different parties (Gaullists, Communists, Socialists, Christian Democrats, Independents and others) and individuals (De Gaulle, Giscard, Chirac, Mitterand, Marchais, etc.) has influenced virtually every aspect of institutional reform, from the creation of the regional administration and delineation of its powers to the delegation of specific responsibilities to cities and towns. Conflict over the mechanisms that link local life to the national government is by no means limited to France. This book closely examines comparable events in Italy and analyses the factors that differentiate the strength of ‘ethnically’ based challenges to central authority in Britain, Spain, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Canada, from the relative weakness of such challenges in France, Italy and Germany. By evaluating the territorial distribution between the capital and the countryside as both an influence on and an object of policy, Paris and the Provinces contributes significantly to understanding the connections between party politics and policy formation and will be of interest to students of political science, government, and public policy.

Peter Gourevitch had a remarkable set of parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and his account of their lives across the 20th century is also a history of those years-and a reflection on the experience of men and women who lived in hard times and made fateful choices. They were revolutionaries in czarist Russia, Menshevik oppositionists in Bolshevik Russia, Jewish socialists in Berlin who fled the Nazis to Paris and then to Toulouse and Nice in Vichy France. Some of them died in Russia, Stalin's victims; some of them died in Auschwitz; some of them escaped to America, with the help of the American Federation of Labor and the Jewish Labor Committee-a largely untold story. Peter has reconstructed their lives from family legends, the archives of brutal regimes, personal letters, official documents, and his own memories. He tells an extraordinarily engaging and moving tale, and concludes with an incisive argument about what we can learn from it about history and politics. Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton "This gem of a book by a distinguished political scientist records the absorbing history of his family. Profoundly uplifting and sad, these stories search for family roots in the escape routes from the revolutionary vengeance of the Bolsheviks, the Holocaust of the Nazis, and Stalin' Gulag. Contingency, context, complexity and causality bring to light different circumstances and choices marked by survival and death, resilience and courage. Peter Gourevitch's curiosity and passion makes a cruel past part of our unsettled present." Peter Joachim Katzenstein FBA is a German-American political scientist. He is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. Former President of the American Political Science Association. Peter Gourevitch has written a compelling family tale of identities and political calculation in the harrowing contexts of holocaust, revolution and world war. Why did some escape, while others stayed? The distinguished author of Politics in Hard Times now gives us an account of personal politics in even harder times that shows how epochal events create existential dilemmas for individual lives. Weaving the politics of the day together with the panoramic narrative of a family, this is not only a personal detective story but an illuminating rumination on how human beings make difficult choices under conditions of great uncertainty. Readers will be unable to put it down. Peter A. Hall, Krupp Foundation Professor of European Studies in the Department of Government at Harvard University, and former Director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.

Peter Gourevitch had a remarkable set of parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and his account of their lives across the 20th century is also a history of those years-and a reflection on the experience of men and women who lived in hard times and made fateful choices. They were revolutionaries in czarist Russia, Menshevik oppositionists in Bolshevik Russia, Jewish socialists in Berlin who fled the Nazis to Paris and then to Toulouse and Nice in Vichy France. Some of them died in Russia, Stalin's victims; some of them died in Auschwitz; some of them escaped to America, with the help of the American Federation of Labor and the Jewish Labor Committee-a largely untold story. Peter has reconstructed their lives from family legends, the archives of brutal regimes, personal letters, official documents, and his own memories. He tells an extraordinarily engaging and moving tale, and concludes with an incisive argument about what we can learn from it about history and politics. Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton "This gem of a book by a distinguished political scientist records the absorbing history of his family. Profoundly uplifting and sad, these stories search for family roots in the escape routes from the revolutionary vengeance of the Bolsheviks, the Holocaust of the Nazis, and Stalin' Gulag. Contingency, context, complexity and causality bring to light different circumstances and choices marked by survival and death, resilience and courage. Peter Gourevitch's curiosity and passion makes a cruel past part of our unsettled present." Peter Joachim Katzenstein FBA is a German-American political scientist. He is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. Former President of the American Political Science Association. When do we choose to flee from an increasingly precarious fate? How do you know when it's time to go? Through the lens of his fascinating family history, Peter Gourevitch explores how circumstance and happenstance combine to determine how we answer such questions. Some family chose to leave revolutionary Russia for the safety of Germany. Some fled Hitler's Germany for the safety of France. Some took the last train from Paris as the city fell to the Nazis, eventually making it to the United States because they were Socialists rather than because they were Jews. An epic family journey that focuses on the choices that took members down different and sometimes tragic paths. David A. Lake, Gerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego. Webpage: https: //quote.ucsd.edu/lake/ "You are destroying my productivity. I literally could not put this down. Bravo "Robert Kuttner, co-Editor The American Prospect

First published in 1980, Paris and the Provinces explores why reforms of central-local relations in France have been so ineffectual. Professor Gourevitch discovers the cause in party politics and personal rivalries. The struggle for dominance among different parties (Gaullists, Communists, Socialists, Christian Democrats, Independents and others) and individuals (De Gaulle, Giscard, Chirac, Mitterand, Marchais, etc.) has influenced virtually every aspect of institutional reform, from the creation of the regional administration and delineation of its powers to the delegation of specific responsibilities to cities and towns. Conflict over the mechanisms that link local life to the national government is by no means limited to France. This book closely examines comparable events in Italy and analyses the factors that differentiate the strength of ‘ethnically’ based challenges to central authority in Britain, Spain, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Canada, from the relative weakness of such challenges in France, Italy and Germany. By evaluating the territorial distribution between the capital and the countryside as both an influence on and an object of policy, Paris and the Provinces contributes significantly to understanding the connections between party politics and policy formation and will be of interest to students of political science, government, and public policy.

First published in 1984. This book represents a major study of union responses to the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Abjuring governmental or managerial outlooks, it argues that unions, as representatives of essential producer groups, would be central to the renegotiation of the economic world. The work also stresses the importance of situating union responses to the crisis within the socio-historical evolution of their political economies during the rise and decline of the post-war economic boom. The Social Democratic affiliation of unions in Britain, West Germany and Sweden make them particularly comparable. This title will be of interest to students of politics and economics.

First published in 1984. This book represents a major study of union responses to the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s. Abjuring governmental or managerial outlooks, it argues that unions, as representatives of essential producer groups, would be central to the renegotiation of the economic world. The work also stresses the importance of situating union responses to the crisis within the socio-historical evolution of their political economies during the rise and decline of the post-war economic boom. The Social Democratic affiliation of unions in Britain, West Germany and Sweden make them particularly comparable. This title will be of interest to students of politics and economics.

In Politics in Hard Times, Peter Gourevitch explores the common political factors that shape economic policy choices. He focuses on three periods of economic crisis—1873–1896, 1929–1949, and 1971 to the present—and compares policy choices made in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United States.

In Politics in Hard Times, Peter Gourevitch explores the common political factors that shape economic policy choices. He focuses on three periods of economic crisis—1873–1896, 1929–1949, and 1971 to the present—and compares policy choices made in Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United States.