WITNESS 5 0 COMING OF AGE IN JAPAN LESLEY DOWNER peers into the bizarre world of the Otaku— the rebellious children of Japan’s information society who find refuge in comic books.

REVIEWS 5 6 SAUCE FOR THE LIBERAL GOOSE ERNEST GELLNER examines the dilemmas of foxes and hedgehogs in the work of Isaiah Berlin and wonders about the fate of liberalism in our times.

Is he a relativist? Page 56

6 2 ESCAPING THE AERODROME CHRIS PATTEN looks at an old novel in the light of a new polemic and speculates about the future of politics in western countries. 6 4 LOOK BACK IN PROPAGANDA CHRISTOPHER TOOKEY attacks the spin-doctors of cinema who rewrite history to fit the demands of political correctness.

INTERVIEW 66 WOLFGANG SCHAUBLE ANNE McELVOY talks to Germany’s second most powerful man.

Awaiting power. Page 66

BRIEFINGS 7 2 ISLAM’S DIVIDED HOUSE DAVID GARDNER Is Islamic fundamentalism on the wane after its g reat successes in the 1980s? O r will it continue to benefit from a political vacuum, especially in the Arab world?

7 6 HAILING THE TAXES STEPHEN TINDALE looks at the current debates about who and what governments can reasonably tax. Can equity and revenue be combined?

SPECIAL REPORT 8 0 WASHINGTON’S GREEN HOUSE CONOR O’CLERY How green is the US president? Bill Clinton visits Ireland in November. Is the special relationship now between the US and Ireland rather than between the US and the UK?

RESEARCH 8 4 SOCIAL MOBILITY—PLUS QA CHANGE GORDON MARSHALL AND ADAM SWIFT A group o f sociologists have discovered that social mobility is virtually identical across all major industrial societies. Classless America is scarcely more mobile than apparently stratified Britain.

ENDS 88 DIGEST Extracts from broadcasts, newspapers and journals: Howard Davies on the new corporatism; Peter Glotz on Nato expansion; a European manifesto; and Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks. 9 4 THE PROSPECT CROSSWORD DIDYMUS

REGULARS 8 WHAT IF?... GARY SOLIS wonders what would have happened if OJ Simpson had been found guilty.

13 SOCIAL NOTEBOOK PAUL BARKER on our ghoulish fascination with murder trials, and the decline of Gloucester. 31 MODERN MANNERS JEREMY CLARKE on the temptations of being a mature student. 4 9 ONLY CONNECT ROBERT HAUPT on the status hierarchy of the new means of communication. 7 0 THE NET POSITION JOHN CARR continues his guidance on useful corners of the Internet. 9 5 BRUSSELS DIARY MANNEKEN PIS

9 6 PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS JOHN LLOYD on coming to terms with his stepfather.

PROSPECT November 1995 3