Joint evaluations of legislature and legislator

While much concern has been expressed about the accountability of quasi‐government there has been little empirical research on the subject. Similarly, the literature lacks a thorough assessment of the contribution of parliamentary questions to holding governmental institutions accountable. In this paper part of this gap in the literature is closed by measuring the extent to which a wide range of executive non‐departmental public bodies (ENDPBs) are held accountable by the use of questions tabled in the House of Commons. Questions asked to ministers in the Foreign Office and the Department for Education and Employment about ENDPBs they sponsor are assessed. A similar exercise is conducted on the agencies in these two departments and the results compared. In general, the partisan political atmosphere of the Commons, the apathy of many MPs, the size of the ENDPB sector and the rules governing questions mean that their contribution to the accountability of these bodies is relatively small. In particular, many specialist and technical bodies receive almost no scrutiny.     

Book reviews

The Politics of Central Europe by Attila Ágh. London: Sage Publications Ltd, 1998. Pp.xii + 244. £15.99 pb ISBN 0 7619 5032 X.

Legitimacy and the European Union by David Beetham and Christopher Lord. Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman Ltd, 1998. Pp.viii + 144. £11.99 pb ISBN 0 582 30489 X.

Party Discipline and Parliamentary Government edited by Shaun Bowler, David M. Farrell and Richard S. Katz. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1999. Pp.ix + 304. $59.95 hb ISBN 0 8142 0796 0; $22.50 pb ISBN 0 8142 5000 9.

Conscience and Parliament edited by Philip Cowley. London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1998. Pp.204 £35 hb ISBN 0 7146 4836 1; £16.50 pb ISBN 0 7146 4388 2.

The House of Lords: Its Parliamentary and Judicial Roles edited by Brice Dickson and Paul Carmichael. Oxford: Hart Publishing Ltd, 1999. Pp.258. £30 hb ISBN 1 84113 020 6.

Namibia's Post‐Apartheid Regional Institutions: The Founding Years by Joshua Bernard Forrest. Woodbridge, Suffolk: University of Rochester Press, 1999. Pp.xviii + 408. £40 hb ISBN 1 58046 028 3.

Bakom Riksdagens Fasad by Magnus Hagevi. Göteburg: Akademiförlaget, Corona, 1998. Pp.314 pb ISBN 91 24 16844 0.

Feminist Perspectives on Public Law edited by Susan Millns and Noel Whitty. London: Cavendish Publishing Limited, 1999. Pp.xviii + 306. £19.95 pb ISBN 1 85941 480 X.

Senates: Bicameralism in the Contemporary World edited by Samuel C. Patterson and Anthony Mughan. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 360. $52 hb ISBN 0 8142 0810 X; $19.95 pb 0 8142 5010 6.

Deliberative Democracy in Australia: The Changing Place of Parliament by John Uhr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 265. £45 hb ISBN 0 521 62458 4; £15.95 pb ISBN 0 521 62465 7.

Pursuit of Justices: Presidential Politics and the Selection of Supreme Court Nominees by David Alistair Yalof. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Pp.x + 296. £19.50 hb ISBN 0 226 94545 6.     

The pressures for protection

Japan's Unequal Trade, by Edward J. Lincoln. The Brookings Institution, Washington, 1990. xiii+223 pp. $26.95. ISBN 0–8157–5262–8.

Japan's Quest for a Role in the World: Roles ascribed to Japan Nationally and Internationally, by Bert Edström. Institute of Oriental Languages, University of Stockholm, Stockholm, 1988. xiii+325 pp. ISBN 91–7146–585–5.

Japan at the Summit: Its Role in the Western Alliance and Asian‐Pacific Cooperation, by Shiro Saito. Routledge for RIIA, London, 1990. xii + 220 pp. £30. ISBN 0–415–04271–2.

Made in Japan And Other Japanese ‘Business Novels’, translated and edited by Tamae K. Prindle. M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, NY and London, 1990. xviii+203 pp. $24.95, ISBN 0–87332–529‐X.

Trade and Investment Relations Among the United States, Canada and Japan, edited by Robert M. Stern. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1989. viii+448 pp. £47.25 ($43.95). ISBN 0–226–77317–5.

International Economic Pluralism: Economic Policy in East Asia and the Pacific, by Peter Drysdale. Allen and Unwin Australia, Sydney and London, 1988. 294 pp. £20 paperback. ISBN 0–04–350075–7.

Japanese Business Down Under: Patterns of Japanese Investment in Australia, by David W. Edgington. Routledge, London and New York, 1990. xiv + 294 pp. £40. ISBN. 0–415–03499‐X.

Japan's Foreign Policy, by Reinhard Drifte. Routledge and the RIIA, London, 1990. x + 112 pp. £7.95. ISBN 0–415–03234–2.

Japan's Trade Policies: 1945 to the Present Day, by Takashi Shiraishi. Athlone Press, London, 1989. viii + 228 pp. £37.50. ISBN 0–485–11363–5.

Resisting Protectionism: Global Industries and the Politics of International Trade, by Helen V. Milner. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1988. xiii+329 pp. $29.50. ISBN 0–691–05670–6.     

Accountability‐by‐Proxy in Transnational Non‐State Governance

Transnational non‐state governance arrangements (NGAs) are increasingly common in areas such as labor standards and environmental sustainability, often presenting themselves as innovative means through which the lives of marginalized communities in developing countries can be improved. Yet in some cases, the policy interventions adopted by the managers of these NGAs appear not to be welcomed by their supposed beneficiaries. This article accounts for this predicament by examining the effects of different configurations of accountability within NGAs promoting labor rights. Most labor‐rights NGAs incorporate “proxy accountability” arrangements, in which consumers and activists hold decision makers accountable “on behalf” of the putative beneficiaries of the NGAs: workers and affected communities in poorer countries. The article shows how and why different combinations of proxy versus beneficiary accountability influence the choice of policy instruments used by NGAs, and applies the argument to three prominent non‐state initiatives in the domain of labor standards.     

From state paternalism to neoliberalism in Australian rural policy: Perspectives from the Western Australian wheatbelt

For much of this century, the rural policies of Australian governments were directed at providing a viable social and economic base for rural communities and country towns. Policies which provided the conditions for stable growth in the agricultural economy, together with equitable levels of access to services such as schools, hospitals and public housing, were seen as instrumental in the development of stable rural communities. More recently, however, the process of global economic restructuring, agricultural adjustment, farm amalgamation and rapid technological change, have contributed to the declining socio‐economic viability of many rural areas. This pattern of decline has been compounded over recent years by the emergence of state and federal government policies based upon the principles of ‘neoliberalism’. The emergence of this approach to rural policy has meant that state and federal governments have, increasingly, withdrawn from effective regional development strategies, rationalised the levels of public service provision, and devolved much of the responsibility for community well‐being to the local level. This paper critically reviews the changing governmental approaches to rural development, and reflects upon some of the outcomes of these policy changes in the wheatbelt of Western Australia.     

In the Public Eye: Sustainability and the UK's Leading Retailers

This paper aims to provide an exploratory case study of the sustainability agendas being publicly reported by the UK's leading retailers and to offer some wider reflections on the ways these retailers are currently addressing and pursuing sustainability agendas. The paper begins with a short discussion of the characteristics of sustainability. The paper draws its empirical material from the most recent information on sustainability posted on the UK's top 10 retailers' corporate web sites. The findings reveal that all the UK's top 10 retailers provide information on a wide range of environmental, social and economic sustainability agendas and that the majority of them essentially argue that by integrating sustainability into their businesses, they are better placed to provide long term growth. More critically, the authors argue that the UK's leading retailers are, at best, adopting a ‘weak’ model of sustainability and that in pursuing continuing growth, they are ignoring the basic fact that present patterns of consumption are unsustainable in the long term. The paper provides an accessible review of, and some reflections on, the sustainability agendas being pursued by the UK's leading retailers and as such it will interest academics and those working in management positions within the retail and the retail supply industries. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.