Devolution and outsourcing of municipal services in Kampala city,Uganda: an early assessment

The late 1980s saw the beginning of wide‐ranging economic and political reforms in Africa, prompted by both external and internal pressures. Demands for political reform pushed for democratisation, including decentralisation of power and resources to lower levels of government. Alongside pressures for democratisation were those for economic liberalisation, including the rolling back of the state characterised by, among other things, reducing its role in service provision. This article looks at aspects of political and economic liberalisation in Uganda, involving devolution and outsourcing of service provision in Kampala city. It focuses on the city's experience with devolution and outsourcing of solid waste management. It shows that, pockets of resistance notwithstanding, the reforms enjoyed widespread popularity and led to many positive changes. In addition, it shows that they begot problems and encountered others that rendered the process of change more problematic than its advocates had anticipated. Its major conclusion is that while devolution and outsourcing are useful tools for improving service delivery, they cannot ensure long‐term success in the absence of financial, technical and managerial capacity on the part of contractors and contracting authorities. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Impact of Natural Resources: Survey of Recent Quantitative Evidence

Abstract

The cross-country empirical evidence for the natural resource curse is ample, but unfortunately fraught with econometric difficulties. A recent wave of studies on measuring the impact of natural resource windfalls on the economy exploits novel datasets such as giant oil discoveries to identify effects of windfalls, uses natural experiments and within-country econometric analysis, and estimates local impacts. These studies offer more hope in the search of quantitative evidence.     

Boris Annenkoff: A central Asian bayard

Far East

The Origins of the Cultural Revolution. Vol. 1: Contradictions among the People, 1956–1957. By Roderick MacFarquhar. London, Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1974. Pp. 439. Illus. Index. £5.50.

Capital Formation in Mainland China, 1952–1965. By Kang Chao. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press, 1974. Pp. 178. Statistics. Bibliog. Index. £6.00.

Land Reform in the People's Republic of China. By John Wong. New York, Praeger; London, Pall Mall Press, 1974. Pp. 319. £9.50.

The Nine Sacred Mountains of China: An Illustrated Record of Pilgrimages made in the years 1935–1936. By Mary A. Mullikin and Anna M. Hotchkis. Hong Kong, Vetch and Lee, 1973. Pp. 156. Map. Illus. Index. HK $75.00.

Economic Institutional Change in Tokugawa Japan: Osaka and the Kinai Cotton Trade. By William B. Hauser. Cambridge University Press, 1974. Pp. 239. Maps. Tables. Bibliog. Index. £6.00.

South‐East Asia

Twenty Years Indonesian Foreign Policy 1945–65. By Ide Anak Agung Gde Agung. The Hague, Mouton, 1974. Pp. 640. Bibliog. Index. 69 guilders.

Indonesia After the 1971 Elections. Edited by Oey Hong Lee. London, Oxford University Press for the University of Hull (Hull Monographs on South‐East Asia No. 5), 1974. Pp. 116. Index. £2.00.

A Nation in the Making: The Philippines and the United States, 1899–1921. By Peter W. Stanley. Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press, 1974. Pp. 340. Bibliog. Index. £7.00.

Central Asia

Travels into Bokhara, together with a Narrative of a Voyage on the Indus. By Sir Alexander Burnes, FRS, with a new introduction by Major‐General James Lunt, CBE. Karachi, Oxford University Press, 1973. 3 vols. Map. Illus. Index. £14.95 the set (Vol. 3 £4.25).

Central Asian Review 1953–1971: Complete Contents. Subject Index to accompany the 35 mm. microfilm edition of Central Asian Review. London, Central Asian Research Centre, 1973. Pp. 49.

Afghanistan. By Louis Dupree. Princeton University Press, 1973. Pp. 760. Maps. Illus. Appendices. Bibliog. Index. $22.50.

South Asia

Radical Politics in South Asia. Edited by Paul R. Brass and Marcus F. Franda. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1973. Pp. 449. Index. £6.75.

Population, Politics and the Future of Southern Asia. Edited by W. Howard Wriggins and James F. Guyot. New York and London, Columbia University Press, 1974. Pp. 402. Index. £4.25.

The Transfer of Power 1942–7. Vol. IV: The Bengal Famine and the New Viceroyalty, 15 June 1943–31 August 1944. Edited by Nicholas Mansergh and E. W. R. Lumby. London, HMSO, 1973. Pp. 1,295. Appendix. Glossary. Index. £13.00.

India's Revolution: Gandhi and the Quit India Movement. By Francis G. Hutchins. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, Oxford University Press, 1974. Pp. ix+326. Bibliog. Index. £8.00.

A New System of Slavery. The Export of Indian Labour Overseas. 1830–1920. By Hugh Tinker. London, Oxford University Press for the Institute of Race Relations, 1974. Pp. 432. Maps. Illus. Bibliog. Index. £5.75.

A Matter of Honour: an account of the Indian Army, its officers and men. By Philip Mason. London, Jonathan Cape, 1974. Pp. 580. Maps. Bibliog. Index. £5.75.

Sind: Before the Muslim Conquest (History of Sind Series, Volume II). By H. T. Lambrick. Hyderabad, Oxford University Press, 1974. Pp. 217. Maps. Notes. Indices. £3.90.

Politics in Sri Lanka 1947–1973. By A. Jeyaratnam Wilson. London, Macmillan, 1974. Pp. 347. Index. £7.50.

Middle East

Information and the Arab Cause. By M. Abdel‐Kadir Hatem. London, Longman, 1974. Pp. 320. Index. £4.75.

Survival or Hegemony? The Foundations of Israeli Foreign Policy. By Samuel J. Roberts. Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974. Pp. 162. Bibliog. Index. £1.40.

The United Arab Emirates. An Economic and Social Survey. By K. G. Fenelon. London, Longman, 1973. Pp. 145. Appendices Bibliog. Index. £3.00.

Muscat and Oman: the End of an Era. By Ian Skeet. London, Faber &; Faber, 1974. Pp. 224. Illus. Bibliog. Appendices. Index. £3.95.

Modernization Without Revolution: Lebanon's Experience. By Elie Adib Salem. Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1973. Pp. 174. Index. £4.20.

The Economic Development of Iran. A Recent Survey with Projections to 1981. By Robert E. Looney. New York, Praeger; London, Pall Mall Press, 1974. Pp. 199. Bibliog. £6.50.

Among the Dervishes. By O. M. Burke. London, Octagon Press, 1973. Pp. 203. Bibliog. £1.75.

Philosophy

Teachings of Rumi: the Masnavi. Abridged and translated by E. H. Whinfield. London, Octagon Press, 1973. Pp. 330. £4.00.

The Spirit of the East. By the Sirdar Ikbal Ali Shah. London, Octagon Press, 1973. Pp. 277. £3.50.

Memoirs

With Great Truth and Respect. By Paul Gore‐Booth. London, Constable, 1974. Pp. 440. Illus. Index. £5.00.     

From rural rebellions to urban riots: political competition and changing patterns of violent political revolt in Uganda

Violent political revolt has been common in independent Uganda. For a long time, such revolts were exclusively expressed as rural-based rebel groups fighting the government. Since the mid-2000s, however, this seems to have come to an end. Instead, urban riots, very rare in the past, have become much more common. This article analyses these changing patterns of types and location of violent political revolt in Uganda under the National Resistance Movement government. It argues that the earlier prevalence of rural rebellions can be explained by the combination of a coercive and militarised state, and weak and ethnically factionalised political forces who took their violent resistance to rural regional bases. Over time, however, government counter-insurgency became more effective and the conditions for insurgency were undermined by withdrawal of external support. Furthermore, the reintroduction of multi-party politics in 2005 opened up new avenues for political expression. The changes to the political system were, however, more nominal than real in many respects. While the rebel option had become less attractive and feasible, a series of social, economic and political grievances remained which were only partly channelled through party politics. They also found expression through sporadic urban violent revolt.     

The PDS in the new German party system

The success of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) cannot be explained solely with a rising tide of GDR nostalgia and/or with the efficiency of PDS members as service providers and advocates at the grass‐roots level. We stress the importance of the PDS as the main political representative of a specific socio‐economic and cultural milie in the former GDR. Furthermore, the article traces the evolution of the PDS from a populist voice of protest of the losers of unification to the beginnings of a new political party. As such it defines its identity more as a radical left‐wing party with strong social libertarian characteristics than a traditional socialist party. The party programme and the electorate of the PDS display remarkable similarities to the fundamentalist wing of the West German Greens in the 1980s, although differences as to the origins of the left‐libertarian ideas remain important. While the PDS seems to have strengthened the significance of the new politics agenda in post‐unification Germany, it is still too early to conclude whether this agenda is firmly rooted in the party or whether it is simply a vehicle to electoral success.     

U.S. Customs Service User Fees: A Variety of Charges and Counter-Charges

User charges, which have become an important revenue enhancement device during the 1980s, have also raised a variety of counter-charges. This study examines three new mandatory Customs Service fees—for processing passengers, conveyances, and merchandise entering the United States and for special services at small airports—along with their differences and changes over time (in rate structure, exemptions, dedicated accounts, and disposition of funds). Despite support for the charges, opposition to some has arisen because of their cost to the private sector, violation of certain assumptions behind user fees, competing international obligations and policies, rival institutional interests and powers of Congress and the presidency, and changing fiscal conditions.