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Some recent typologies of religious groups have taken as their basis the religious group's response to the world, implying that there exists a pattern of association between this response and the organization, which expresses it. This paper presents some of the findings from research into a group, British Israelism, is neither sect nor cult as these are usually defined; it asserts its own teachings neither as autonomous nor yet as necessary for salvation. It is tolerated, but not respected; anxious for recognition as divine truth and yet aware of its slight prospects of attaining it. To the outsider, British Israelism is a sect but this is a designation, which it has tried to resist; and, sociologically, it is not a sect. This ambiguous position has had important consequences for its organizational structure, its authority structure, its membership, and its ecclesiology. The modern British Israel movement has a short history, having begun in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. It has never had a very large following estimates of a worldwide membership of two million are usually considered high. British Israelites believe that the Anglo-Saxons are the descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel; from this belief they have drawn a number of conclusions concerning the supremacy of the white race; the Divinely-appointed leadership role of the Anglo-Saxon nations; and the extent to which Protestant beliefs should enter into political and economic thinking.

This paper discusses recent speculation concerning the normative bond which ties the lower class to the present structure of British society. It focuses on the assertions by some theorists that the normative opposition which can arise 'spontaneously' within the lower class is inherently limited in scope, and that any future class based movements of a radical kind depend on the action of agencies 'external' to the lower class. Some preliminary results are presented from a recent survey of council tenants in Barking, East London, some of whom were on rent strike. This evidence reveals the existence of attitudes 'deviant' to dominant values concerning the ownership and rights of property. In conclusion, the nature of lower class normative opposition is reassessed and it is suggested that the lower class are not as conceptually restricted as is often suggested, and that future possibilities of radical action do not necessarily depend on the activities of the Labour Party or trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by examining the typology of educational systems outlined by Earl Hopper m Sociology (vol. 2, no. I, 1968) and argues against the attempt to reduce the comparative study of education to varieties of occupational selection. On the other hand, accepting that a central part of the sociology of education must be with ideology and the generation and transmission of learning, it outlines a framework for examining this in Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the great majority of British citizens electoral behavior consists almost entirely of voting for a party candidate or not voting at all at a Parliamentary General Election, and it is with this form of behavior that this study is mainly concerned. Official statistics show the total turnout for all contested constituencies, but for anything more revealing than this one is dependent upon the findings of sample surveys. From these, however, the turnout rate for various sections of the electorate is established with a fair degree of reliability. It is seen that within the total figures there are considerable and politically important variations. Both political parties have been slow to see and to accept these changes, although one party has been much slower than the other. Their procrastination has been encouraged by the fact that voting behavior, based as it is largely on early socialization and a sense of duty, has not, so far, been affected sharply by changing political attitudes. However, the gap between political attitudes and voting behavior is steadily hardening and even politicians are coming to realize that complex changes in the class structure of post-war British society threatens in the not too distant future to end the old ideological simplifications about politics.