It is possible to distinguish in the federal administrative agencies, collectively known as “the bureaucracy,” a separate branch of government distinct alike from the executive and from the legislature. It is equally possible to argue that the administrative agencies, because they are the organs through which the law becomes effective and because they are at least nominally under presidential control, are parts of the executive establishment; or that through congressional control over appropriations they are extensions of the legislature. To the extent that the bureaucracy does in fact share all of these characteristics, it becomes the instrument through which the close fusion of executive and legislative functions required by the complex nature of modern government may be brought about under a constitution committed to the eighteenth-century doctrine of separation of powers.

William of Occam has fittingly been called the “most subtle doctor of the Middle Ages.” Despite this fact, or perhaps because of it, the vast political writings of this famous fourteenth-century scholastic have been surprisingly neglected by modern students, particularly in England and the United States. It is commonly agreed that among general philosophers of the Middle Ages this “second founder of nominalism” is surpassed by St. Thomas Aquinas alone. Surely, therefore, the presumption is reasonable that the encyclopedic mass of Occam's political writings conceals many “diamonds in the rough,” only awaiting discovery. The present writer hopes that he may throw some light on certain important problems discussed by Occam, especially that most significant one of a “higher” or fundamental law.

An impression seems prevalent in many quarters that Occam obtained most of his political ideas from his famous contemporary, Marsiglio of Padua, who has established himself among modern students as the really great political genius of his times. Without detracting from Marsiglio's well-deserved fame, we are quite unable to accept this view. On the contrary, Occam, as might be expected of such a great general philosopher, can stand upon his own feet, and his political theory in many respects exhibits characteristics entirely independent of any Marsiglian influence.

Almost from the creation of the League of Nations, there have been proposals for its reform; a few amendments to the Covenant have actually been adopted. Discontent with the League's achievements in the recent dispute between Japan and China and that between Italy and Ethiopia have of late brought the discussion to a head, and have led to official action by the League itself. According to the British Foreign Minister, in a speech before the Assembly on September 25, 1936:

The underlying motive for the work on which we are now engaged, of examining the Covenant and the procedure of its application, is the recent failure of the collective action of the Members of the League to achieve the prime object for which it was undertaken.

And M. Litvinoff, speaking three days later, asserted that the question

did not arise in any academic way, but was brought into existence and imposed upon us, both by the unhappy outcome of the Italo-Ethiopian conflict and by the whole course of the political events of recent years.

At the meeting of the Council on June 26, 1936, the Chilean delegate proposed that a study of the reform of the Covenant be undertaken; and he proposed it likewise at the 16th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, in July, 1936. Discussion at this session did not reveal much enthusiasm for reform.

Taking note of the constantly increasing number of persons who were seeking nomination to public office in Wayne county, Michigan, a special election laws commission (1930) recommended a change in the laws governing the primary. The recommendation, accompanied by a draft of a bill, proposed to make it somewhat more difficult in that county for candidates to qualify for a place upon the primary ballots. The legislative response to this recommendation was an innocuous amendment providing for the deposit of a small filing fee as an alternative to the nominating petition. However, primary abuses during the depression years convinced the legislature that more drastic action was necessary, and in 1935 the election laws, as applied to Wayne county, were again amended abolishing the nominating petition and substituting the filing fee for “candidates for county office or office in the state legislature.” A similar provision was imposed by charter amendment for municipal offices in the city of Detroit.

The events of the days of May, when Parliament replaced the “National” Government of the third Chamberlain by the “truly National” Government of the third Churchill, illustrate the danger of simple explanations of the working of the British constitution. The notion that responsible government could be expressed in terms of Parliamentary “control” of the Government in power has disappeared. There has been, however, a tendency to replace it by the equally naive explanation of Governmental control of Parliament. The truth lies in between. On the one hand, it must be recognized that, through the party machine, a Government with a majority has very substantial powers of control. On the other hand, it must equally be recognized that public opinion, acting through members of Parliament, has a profound influence on the policy of the Government. The precise relationship has never been fully investigated, because the British electoral machine has never been adequately studied. It is doubtful if it can ever be adequately expounded, because, like so many parts of the British constitution, it depends upon intangible elements which do not lend themselves easily to demonstration.

After fifty years of experimentation in constitutional government, Japan finds herself today on the threshold of a new era of revolutionary changes. For the greater part of the past half-century, the Japanese political system functioned well. But in recent years many Western features have been found rather awkward and ill-fitting, if not actually obstructive. For some time now, the nation has been discarding many of the foreign trappings which once served so well, but are no longer worth preserving. This casting-off process has been gaining momentum steadily since 1933 and was greatly accelerated by the voluntary liquidation of political parties in July and August, 1940. Thus, a political renovation of a scope heretofore unknown is now in full swing with a new national structure rapidly taking form to meet the dynamic changes in all phases of the Empire's national life.