Reviews

Scribe, Griot and Novelist: Narrative Interpreters of the Songhay Empire by Thomas A Hale. University of Florida Press, Gainesville (Florida, U.S.A.), 1990. xiv plus 313 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. £23.06. Hardback.

General History of Africa VII. Africa under Colonial Domination 1880–1935 (abridged edition) edited by A. Adu Boahenforthe UNESCO International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa. UNESCO (Paris), University of California Press (Berkeley) and James Currey (London), 1990. xxi plus 387pp. including illustrations, bibliography and index. £4.95. Paperback.

South Africa: Constitutional Development ‐ A Multi‐disciplinary Approach by Donovan Marais. Southern Book Publishers, Johannesburg, 1989. 315pp. Notes and index. R37.50. Paperback.

Transport Planning for Third World Cities edited by Harry T. Dimitriou. Routledge, London, 1990. xxii plus 432pp. including figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index. £40.00. Hardback.

The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power by Robert I. Rotberg with Miles F. Shore. Oxford University Press, New York, 1989. xxii plus 800pp. including maps, illustrations and bibliography. $35.00 and £25.00.

The Development of the Executive underthe Nigerian Constitutions, 1960–81 by J.D. Ojo. Ibadan University Press, Ibadan, 1985.189pp.

Cultural Forces in World Politics by Ali A. Mazrui. James Currey, London 1990.262pp. R46.60. Paperback.

Urban Markets ‐ Developing Informal Retailing by David Dewar and Vanessa Watson. Routledge, London, 1990. xii plus 154pp. £30.00. Hardback.

State‐Administered Rural Change: Agricultural Cooperatives in Kenya by Björn Gyllström. Routledge, London and New York, 1991. xvii plus 319pp. including figures, tables, appendices, notes, bibliography and index. Hardback.

The African Frontier: The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies. Edited and with an introduction by Igor Kopytoff. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis. 1987. vii plus 288pp. including maps, notes and index. R70.15. Hardback.

Studies in the Economic History of Southern Africa. Volume Two: South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland edited by Z.A. Konczacki, Jane L Parpart and Timothy M. Shaw. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., London, 1991. xvii plus 290pp. including maps, figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index. £35.00 Hardback. £19.50 Paperback.

Incentives and Agriculture in East Africa by Mats Lundahl. Routledge, London, 1990.223pp. Hardback.

African Agriculture: The Critical Choices edited by HA Amara and B. Founou‐Tchuigoua. UN University Press, Tokyo and Zed Books, London, 1990. 227 pp. Paperback.

A History of Agriculture in West Africa: A Guide to Information Sources by S.C. Saha. Studies in African Economic and Social Development, Volume 6, The Edwin Mellen Press, New York and Lampeter, Wales. 136pp. $49.95. Hardback.

Ethnographic Decision Tree Modelling by Christina H. Gladwin. Sage University Paper Series on Qualitative Research Methods Vol.9. Beverly Hills CALSage, 1989.96pp. $6.50. Paperback.

Samora Machel: A Biography by lain Christie. London: Panaf 1989. 181pp including photographs, bibliography and index. Paperback.

Mozambique: Norwegian Assistance in a Context of Crisis by Grete Brochmann & Arve Ofstad. Fantoft: Christian Michelsen Institute, 1990. vii plus 173pp. including tables, bibliography and index. Paperback.

Self‐Employment for Disabled People: Experiences from Africa and Asia by Malcolm Harper and Willi Momm. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1989. viii plus 85pp. Swiss Francs 15. Paperback.

Technology, Gender and Power in Africa by Patricia Stamp. Ottawa, Ontario, International Development Research Centre, 1989. x plus 185pp. Paperback.

The Devils are Among Us: The War for Namibia by Denis Herbstein and John Evenson. Zed Books Ltd., London, 1989. ix plus 202pp. including maps, photographs, bibliography, glossary and index. Paperback.

Zimbabwe: A Model for Namibia? A Comparison of Events in Zimbabwe‐Rhodesia 1979–1980 with the Situation in SWA in 1989by Ted Sutton‐Pryce. Academica, Pretoria, 1989. vii plus 77pp. including photographs and acknowledgements. R12.50 plus VAT. Hardback.

The Failure of the Centralised State: Institutions of Self‐Governance in Africa edited by James S. Wunsch and Dele Olowu. Westview Press, Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford, 1990. viii plus 334pp. including tables, notes, bibliography and index. Paperback.     

The Electoral Impact of Constituency Campaigning in Britain, 1992–2001

Political parties maintain local organisations and recruit members mainly to fight elections. For most of the post-war period, however, the dominant view among analysts has been that constituency campaigning in British general elections has little or no effect on election outcomes. This view has been challenged over the last ten years or so. Evidence derived from post-election surveys of constituency election agents following the 1992, 1997 and 2001 general elections is used here to show that the intensity of constituency campaigning significantly affects turnout levels and, for Labour and the Liberal Democrats, levels of party support. There is also some evidence that Conservative campaigning affected constituency variations in the party's performance in 2001. The conclusions reached on the basis of aggregate-level analysis are supported by analysis of individual-level data derived from British Election Study surveys. The effects of campaigning are not large, but they are clear and significant – and sufficient to affect the numbers of seats won by the major parties. In the light of this, parties have good reasons to maintain healthy local organisations.     

Preferential Treatment, Social Justice, and the Part-time Law Student – The Case for the Value-added Part-time Law Degree

There has been growing pressure to increase diversity in legal education and the legal profession in England and Wales. While this has focused upon the absence of certain groups such as women, ethnic minorities, and the disabled, there has been no specific discussion of part-time law students. Drawing on questionnaires and focus groups with part-time law students across England and Wales, this article examines how their background and experiences may hamper their ability to participate and succeed in higher education and legal practice. In response to the consistent omission of part-time students' needs from attempts to enhance social diversity in universities and the legal profession, it also argues that affirmative action is now necessary and justified in respect of these students. Pragmatic suggestions are made for a contextual approach to affirmative action for part-time law students which adds value to their degree. Finally, the potential effects of affirmative action on part-time law students themselves and upon the gatekeepers to the legal profession are explored.     

Fiscal Federalism in Australia

Australia displays high vertical fiscal imbalance (VFI) for historical and constitutional reasons. It also attempts to achieve the highest degree of horizontal fiscal equalization (HFE) to be found in any democratic federation. The Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC), a non-partisan body at arm's length from politicians, oversees the regime. A recent report claims that equity, efficiency and transparency would all improve if the regime were abolished. Such a change is politically unachievable, but it raises interesting issues in public finance and public administration, which carry over to other federations and union states.
An economically efficient system would: minimize perverse incentives, especially incentives to seek rent; encourage states to grow; discourage suboptimal location decisions; minimize transaction costs. An equitable system would maximize equity between relevantly similar individuals. Aspects of the Australian system that should be copied include the non-partisan agency and the target of HFE between component parts of the country. Aspects that should be discussed and perhaps copied include the very extensive equalization, including the feature of equalizing away the effects of grants for special purposes. Aspects that should probably not be copied include the cumbersome formulae and some of the perverse methods of calculating for 'needs'. All abbreviations and acronyms are spelt out in the Appendix on page 37.     

South Korea's State-led Soft Power Strategies: Limits on Inter-Korean Relations

Abstract

The South Korean government has taken on many of Joseph Nye's ideas as it is promoting a state-led soft power in the form of the cultural hallyu, foreign aid, and domestically, a future-orientated rebranding of South Korea as a multicultural state. Soft power is understood in instrumental terms as well as in more substantive terms. This state-led multiculturalism has challenged widely held beliefs in ethnic homogeneity which have been the mainspring of national identity and national security in South Korea. These beliefs have underscored inter-Korean relations as the two states officially share beliefs despite political and ideological differences. The growing significance of such state-led multiculturalism in Global Korea to attract foreign workers can be linked to a myriad of intentional and unintentional strategic issues arising from this form of state-led soft power promotion. This is particularly significant given the sensitive culture and identity across the East Asian region.     

Prospects for Local Collaboration into an Uncertain Future: Learning from Practice within Labour's Partnership Paradigm

Achieving effective local collaboration, a strong theme of the previous Labour government, may actually become more important given Coalition government policies emphasising decentralisation and encouraging alternative providers of public services. Therefore, it remains essential to learn from experiences of collaboration especially as, despite significant research, few studies explicitly identify guidance for improving this practice that is of specific relevance to local policy actors. In order to do so, a decentred and ethnographic approach was adopted to examine collaboration in a case study of a Sport and Physical Activity Alliance in Casetown, a medium-sized city in the south of England. Findings from this case study reinforced those found in other studies that pointed to the constraints of targets imposed by the Labour government, ingrained approaches to public administration and lack of open acknowledgement of power differentials impeding the development of effective collaboration. Drawing on the suggestions of those involved in the alliance, an alternative vision of collaboration is advocated, focused on shared learning and bottom-up implementation within more fluid and open structures in which there would be greater scope for the exercise of agency on behalf of those individuals and organisations involved. As during the period of the Labour government, aspects of current wider policy agendas may impede as well as support the development of this alternative vision of collaboration. Nevertheless, it is argued that reflexive local actors may collectively be able to address the contextual challenges that exist in order to develop more effective forms and practices of collaboration.