78 SOCIAL SCIENTIST ing results. The authors should have pondered a bit on this front while preparing the blueprint for further research. In short, refreshing and rejuvenating though the guidelines are, they are ultimately based on the ideology of the school of American behaviouralism. They therefore culminate in modifying the same tenets without any substantive change in the orientation. Therefore the conclusion that (< .. . there is a great need for continued election and voting behaviour studies . . . with a modified perspective . .. " (p 148) appears less sound, to say the least. What has been done in the book is finding remedies to the superficial defects of election studies. The problem is not seen as pare of a larger process of rationalization in its historical roots. The basic limitations are not so much in methodology but in the researchers' relation with the state. Today, as never before, parliamentary democracy is badly in need of the mass production of ideological myths and their dissemination. And the election and voting behaviour studies are so insulated from the general problems of the society that one tends to suspect a deliberate attempt at diverting the attention of scholars towards trivial matters. This, however, is not to be misunderstood as an argument for scrapping all further election studies. But there should not be a huge waste of resources without accountability. There are much more vital areas of interest to the people, at whose cost pheno< menal expenditure on election studies is unwarranted. The book is, nevertheless, a worthwhile work as it contains a thorough review of the total literature on, elections and voting behaviour in India. Besides, many interesting questions have been thrown up, though only a few have been attempted. Yet, one legitimately expects a little more from scholars of competence. In terms of offering fresh ideas or approaches it sorely disappoints. Therefore, the scope of the volume is unlikely to provide enough food for the polilical scientists in these days of drought of fresh thinking on the subject. JAGANATH PATHY