Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood by Kristen LukerReview by: Constance Ewing CookThe American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, No. 3 (Sep., 1986), pp. 1026-1027Published by: American Political Science AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1960577 .

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American Political Science Review Vol. 80

of policy making within a new and developing realm of governmental responsibility.

There are, of course, limits to the flexibility of case studies. But, in truth, this book is really not a case study. Students of the Johnson presi- dency will be disappointed to find that this is a book about technoscience policy that makes reference to the Johnson administration rather than the other way around. This, despite the fact, that the book is third in a series com- missioned by the University of Texas Press to chronicle the administration of Lyndon Johnson.

For the specialist or the general reader inter- ested in technoscience policy, however, this book provides a compelling if not conceptually complete framework for analysis. For one thing, it is not entirely clear what are the bounds of technoscience policy. Included in the 24 cases the author has chosen to examine, are issues as diverse as the Mohole Project (intended to get a core sample of the Earth's mantle) and the ABM. Obviously it would be difficult to suggest that many of the same prin- ciples apply to the consideration and imple- mentation of these very different projects. Herein lies both the strength and weakness of this book.

To the extent that most technoscience issues fall in the range of low to mid-level policy making, this book gives us a unique perspec- tive on the presidential administrative process. Presidential scholars have a tendency to choose for analysis cases that by virtue of being "major" policy issues are rather excep- tional. Major policy issues are often kicked upstairs thereby circumventing the presidential bureaucracy and demanding relatively undi- vided presidential attention. These sorts of decisions, however, are the exception rather than the rule. The great strength of this book and what will be of most interest to presiden- tial scholars is its focus on lower-level presi- dential decision making.

The great weakness of this book is that the author may not recognize the potential benefit for presidential studies of focusing on this lower-level process. So much has been written about the ABM and NASA that when the author delves into these programs little is pro- vided that is new or interesting. After all, these are precisely the sort of issues that have been afforded book-length examination. It is when the author discusses the Mohole project or

NIH funding or programs designed to predict earthquakes that we see a side of the presi- dency which is rarely exposed.

Given that there are characteristics special to the Johnson Administration, such as the pen- chant for a lack of follow through or the Viet- nam War, there is still much to be learned from most of the cases outlined by the author. One only wishes that more attention had been paid to analysis of lower-level decision making. After all, once major issues are labeled national security concerns or special presidential proj- ects, the scientific estate becomes just another lobby, and a minor one at that.

DANIEL PAUL FRANKLIN

Colgate University

Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. By Kristen Luker. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. Pp. viii + 324. $14.95, cloth; $7.95, paper.)

Since the abortion debate so often super- sedes the other concerns of policymakers, can- didates, and single-issue voters, one would ex- pect to find many analyses of the politics sur- rounding this important issue. Unfortunately, however, most of the writing about abortion policies is intended to advance a particular point of view. Kristen Luker's book is a no- table exception to that generalization. Luker says her purpose is the discovery of "how peo- ple come to differ in their feelings about the rightness or wrongness of abortion" (p. 3), and she presents her findings in a sympathetic but dispassionate manner.

Luker's book provides a history of the evo- lution of U.S. abortion policies, followed by a case study of the controversy in California over the last two decades. Her information was gathered from interest group literature and records, from newspaper accounts, and, espec- ially, from lengthy interviews with more than 200 pro-choice and pro-life activists. Many quotations from the interviews are included in the book, thereby adding texture and feeling to the narrative.

Because Luker herself is a sociologist, it is not surprising that the strongest part of her book concerns the social background char-

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1986 Book Reviews: American Politics

acteristics and "world views" of the activists. Although most activists are women, Luker describes them as "two very different consti- tuencies of women, two groups that have dif- ferent experiences in the world and different resources with which to confront it" (p. 8). By comparison with the pro-choice activists, the pro-life women are not only much more religious, but also have more children, are less likely to work outside the home, are less educated, and have lower income levels.

Given the major differences in their social circumstances, it follows that the world view of the pro-life activists should differ greatly from that of their pro-choice opponents. For both groups, the debate over abortion is "merely the tip of the iceberg" of diametrically opposite beliefs about women's roles, sexual behavior, and the nature of marriage and the family. Luker's comprehensive description of the two world views helps to explain why the abortion issue has generated so much emo- tionalism. She asserts that the debate is really "a referendum on the place and meaning of motherhood" (p. 193) and on "the meanings of women's lives" (p. 194). The activists on both sides have a personal stake in winning the abortion controversy, because a loss would represent "the very real devaluation of their lives and life resources" (p. 215).

Much of the information in this book is of special interest to political scientists. Luker describes the organizational frameworks and resources of pro-life and pro-choice groups, as well as their recruitment patterns, cohesion, and membership involvement. The tactics of grassroots mobilization and legislative lobby- ing are also explained, along with a critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the contending groups. Especially insightful is Luker's explanation of the "technology of telecommunications" (p. 219), which has enabled the pro-life women to be politically in- volved without leaving their homes.

Because the pro-life groups are more active, they receive more attention in Luker's analysis. She also chooses to confine her discussion to legislative lobbying, rather than deal, in addi- tion, with interest group pressures on the bureaucracy and the courts. Furthermore, Luker's study concerns only state and local ac- tivists, so similar research still remains to be done at the national level.

Nonetheless, it is likely that Luker's book

will become the best-known study of the abor- tion controversy, not only because of the dearth of direct competition, but also because of the intriguing insights it offers.

CONSTANCE EWING COOK

Albion College

Black American Politics: From the Washington Marches to Jesse Jackson. By Manning Marable. (London: Verso, 1985. Pp. ix + $27.50, cloth; $8.95 paper.)

This book examines the "theory and the historical practice of Black politics: the racial politics of class struggle, the pursuit of power in monopoly capitalist and colonial capitalist societies" (pp. 1-2). Although the author con- siders racism a manifestation of "false con- sciousness," he acknowledges that it is a powerful social force-a force that is logically and functionally related to class inequalities and oppression in the bourgeois democratic order.

Marable offers a provocative theory of black leadership. Black electoral politics is best understood as the "history of the class- conscious Black petty bourgeoisie seeking to influence the bourgeois democratic or colonial- capitalist state for its own purposes. Such political intervention may or may not serve the social class interest of the Black majority" (p. 174). Among the presumed reasons for this dereliction of leadership is the petty bour- geoisie's unwillingness to commit "class suicide," its propensity to be self-serving and self-interested, and its failure to undestand that racial equality cannot be achieved within the liberal democratic state. The most predictable characteristic of this class is its "political and ideological inconsistency" (p. 157).

This theory of black politics is applied to the analysis of the 1941, 1963, and 1983 marches on Washington, D.C.; the electoral politics of Chicago, including the 1983 election of Harold Washington as mayor; and the presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson. In each case, Marable is critical of the black middle-class leadership-especially the National Associa- tion for the Advancement of Colored People -for its role in dampening the militancy of these movements. That the Washington and Jackson campaigns produced advanced agen-

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