Regional Human Rights: A Comparative Study of the West European and Inter-American Systems (review)

176 SAIS REVIEW ingly create a group that both achieves an organization's policy objectives and meets the restrictions set by the government—a narrow path to follow indeed. One broader, significant implication of this change is that forces leading to political pluralism and diffusion of power may emerge. Maclntyre is correct in arguing that Indonesian politics has become more vulnerable to pressure from business groups, but he misses several key factors which might have helped the reader understand more clearly the scale of these changes. Maclntyre does not mention that significant portions of privately owned companies are controlled by Suharto's family, and that the Indonesian economy is a remarkable mixture of business people, military interests, and politicians. To what extent was this true in the companies he examined? How does this affect the alignment ofbusiness and political interests? One wonders what the likelihood is of business groups promoting political change rather than their own narrow business interests. The susceptibility of the Indonesian government to business' demands for changes in the business environment is one thing; substantive response to pressure on human rights issues is another. Maclntyre himselfacknowledges these limitations. He notes that the debates about lowering drug prices (successfully opposed by the drug companies) at no point directly involved the poor, who would primarily benefit from lower prices. Another interesting area of study is the degree to which people simply move beyond the formal political and economic system. Despite the discipline of the Indonesian government, barely halfofbusinesses file income tax returns. Political evolution, when it does come to Indonesia, may be more an acknowledgement of an already changed domestic reality, rather than a response to the policy inroads made by interest groups. Despite these oversights, Business andPolitics inlndonesia provides important insights into the crucial factors underlying Indonesian politics. Maclntyre asserts that while it is very hard to predict what will transpire in the future, significant changes are occurring in Indonesia. We would do well to pay more attention to such an important country, for key acts in the drama remain to be played out. Regional Human Rights: A Comparative Study of the West European and Inter-American Systems. By A. Glenn Mower, Jr. New York: Greenwood Press: New York, 1991. 192 pages. $45.00/Cloth. Reviewed by Amy L. Krassner, JD. and MA. American University, 1992. The atrocities of World War II provided the impetus for a dramatic change in international law. Before the NuremburgTrials, states were consideredthe primary "subjects" ofinternational law. Individuals, in contrast, were considered subjects of national ordomestic law. Formulating international laws governing an individual's behavior would have seemed an enormous breach of national sovereignty. World War II, however, shocked the international community into action; out of the holocaust emerged a body oflaw entitled "international human rights". Although the concept may have existed for centuries, the idea that individuals were appropriate subjects of international law has only been widely accepted in the last BOOK REVIEWS 177 half a century. The body of literature on both the content and implementation of international human rights reflects the growth of this body of law. A. Glenn Mower, Jr.'s Regional Human Rights: A Comparative Study of the West European and Inter-American Systems is one of the latest contributions to this field. Mower organizes his book into five well-constructed and lucid sections. Each section provides the reader with a balanced picture of the West European and Inter-American regional mechanisms for the implementation ofhuman rights. Mower begins by discussing the economic and social conditions in both Europe and Latin America, as well as their respective political systems. He stresses the critical differences between the two regions which led to the commission ofdifferent kinds ofhuman rights violations. For example, abuses in Latin America consisted largely ofwidespread torture and disappearances, while in Europe abuses involving the violation of an individual's personal integrity were rare. He notes that the task of the Inter-American system was, and still is, significantly more formidable than that of its European counterpart. This in itself may not seem a startling insight. However, this type of analysis in a book examining international human rights is not commonplace. Most of the literature on human...