The influence of ideas is a central but puzzling problem in the social sciences. Parsons insisted that ideas play a central role in social continuity as well as in social change. Basic ideas that organise experience become embedded in the public mind and structure the ways in which issues are...

Examines the relationship between economics and culture. Discusses the role of Protestantism, Calvanism and Catholicism in the affluency of societies. Refers to the article by D.J. O′Neil in this issue which discusses the works of Horace Plunkett, Edward Banfield and George Foster, who applied...

The influence of ideas is a central but puzzling problem in the social sciences. Parsons insisted that ideas play a central role in social continuity as well as in social change. Basic ideas that organise experience become embedded in the public mind and structure the ways in which issues are...

Time has run out for the “Vanguard Party”, but the growing disparity in wealth between the industrialized world and the less‐developed world and growing problems of income distribution and public order still give life to the “Dream Economy” proposed by Marxists and others. If the dream...