Feature reviews

Perspectives on the Philippines

Crisis in the Philippines: The Marcos Era and Beyond. John Bresnan, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1986. 284pp. n/p

The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship and Resistance. Daniel B Schirmer and Stephen Rosskam Shalom, Boston, Massachusetts: South End Press. 1987. 425pp. $11.00hb

The Philippines After Marcos. R J May and Francisco Nemenzo, London: Croom Helm. 1985. 239pp. £19.95hb

Touching Ground, Taking Root: Theological and Political Reflections on the Philippine Struggle. London: Catholic Institute for International Relations. 1986. 214pp. £5.75pb

Winds of change in Moscow

The Sixth Continent: Russia and Mikhail Gorbachev. Mary Frankland, London: Hamish Hamilton. 1987. 292pp. £12.95hb

The Waking Giant. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev. Martin Walker, London: Michael Joseph. 1986. 282pp. £14.95hb

The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline. Seweryn Bialer, London: I B Tauris. 1986. 391pp. £19.50hb

The Soviet Union under Gorbachev. Edited by Martin McCauley, London: Macmillan. 1987. 247pp. £29.50hb/£9.95pb

The future of China

China—Politics, Economics and Society: Iconoclasm and Innovation in a Revolutionary Socialist Country. Marc Blecher, London: Frances Pinter, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Riener. 1986. 232pp. £22.50hb/£6.95pb

The China Challenge: Adjustment and Reform. David S G Goodman, Martin Lockett and Gerald Segal, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul (for Royal Institute of International Affairs). 1986. 86pp. £5.95pb

The Political Economy of Reform in Post‐Mao China. Edited by Elizabeth J Perry and Christine Wong, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1985. 331pp. £11.95pb

Apartheid observed

Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White. Joseph Lelyveld, London: Sphere Books. 1987. 390pp. £3.95pb

Black and Gold: Tycoons, Revolutionaries and Apartheid. Anthony Sampson, London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1987. 280pp. £12.95hb

The Sanctions Handbook. Joseph Hanlon and Roger Omond, Harmondsworth: Penguin. 1987. 389pp. £4.95pb

South Africa: No Easy Path to Peace. Graham Leach, London: Methuen. 1986. 312pp. £2.95pb

King Solomon's Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of Southern Africa. William Minter, New York: Basic Books. 1986. 401pp. n/p

Environmental warfare

Herbicides in War: The Long‐Term Ecological and Human Consequences. Edited by Arthur H Westing, London: Taylor and Francis. 1984. 210pp. £15.00hb

Environmental Warfare: A Technical, Legal and Policy Appraisal. Edited by Arthur H Westing, London: Taylor and Francis. 1984. 107pp. £12.00hb     

Government Internal Audits: The Determinants of Quality Supervisory Review of Audit Documentation

This study investigates the factors that impact the quality of government internal audit workpaper review. Numerous concerns have been expressed about the quality of government audits in recent years. The audit workpaper review helps to ensure public officials rely on accurate audit reports and recommendations. A survey was sent to local government chief auditors in the United States to learn about their audit and audit review processes. Survey analysis reveals the quality of audit workpaper review is a function of auditor training, audit client cooperation, audit departments’ budget size, auditor consulting engagements with the clients, etc.     

Imperialism and Chinese nationalism: Germany in Shantung,By John F. Schrecker

Abstract

Professor Schrecker's book is basically a defense of Qing foreign policy during the 1895-1911 period. He demonstrates a concern of nationalism in late Qing with protecting the legal sovereignty of the Chinese state by showing how turn-of-the-century governors Yuan Shi-kai, Zhou Fu, and Yang Shi-xiang labored to defend the territorial integrity of Shandong [Shantung] province against German imperialism. The book's strength lies in Schrecker's conceptual analysis of Chinese foreign policy and its intellectual roots in the late nineteenth century. He argues cogently and with originality that in their concern for defending “sovereignty,” officials like Yuan Shi-kai combined the militant conservative qing-i school of the 1880s with the internationalist approach after 1895 of radical reformers like Kang You-wei. But Schrecker also argues that Qing foreign policy succeeded in stopping German imperialism in Shandong by 1911 and in terms of the empire as a whole that “in the last decade of the dynasty the Chinese government made considerably more progress in its struggle against imperialism than has generally been believed.” (p. 254) In such judgments about the success of late Qing foreign policy, he betrays the bias of what Bulletin readers have come to know as the Harvard school of apologetics for Western and Japanese imperialism. Schrecker deserves credit for drawing attention to the nationalist posture which the late Qing took after 1901 but he goes too far in his defense of the dynasty and the “progress” actually made against Western and Japanese imperialism.     

Authoritarian leaders and multiparty elections in Africa: How foreign donors help to keep Kenya's Daniel arap Moi in power

This article argues that prior accounts of Moi and KANU's re-election in Kenya's 1992 and 1997 polls overemphasise divisions within the opposition and underestimate the role of international actors. Drawing on interviews with central players and internal donor documents, the author demonstrates that aid donors played a central part not only in initially advancing the cause of multipartyism but subsequently also, on several occasions, actively impeding further democratisation. Donors twice knowingly endorsed unfair elections (including suppressing evidence of their illegitimacy) and repeatedly undermined domestic efforts to secure far-reaching political reforms, which were a prerequisite for an opposition victory and a full transition to democracy. In the face of anti-regime popular mobilisation, donors' primary concern appeared to be the avoidance of any path that could lead to a breakdown of the political and economic order, even if this meant legitimising and prolonging the regime's authoritarian rule.     

The Memory of Violence: trauma in the writings of Alexander Kanengoni and Yvonne Vera and the idea of unreconciled citizenship in Zimbabwe

Seasonal Dimensions to Rural Poverty. Edited by Robert Chambers, Richard Longhurst and Arnold Pacey, London: Frances Pinter. 1981. 259pp. £15.50.

International Trade 1980–81. GATT, Geneva: GATT. 1981. 199pp. Swiss Francs.30.

Global Strategy for Growth: a report on North‐South issues. Lord McFadzean of Kelvinside, Chairman of the Study Group London: Trade Policy Research Centre. 1981.100pp. £2.00.

Part‐Time Farming in Cyprus: a pilot study. Richard Pearce, Reading, England: Department of Agriculture Economics and Management, University of Reading. 1981. 93pp. £2.00.

Bank for International Settlements. Fifty‐first Annual Report, April 1980 ‐ March 1981. Bank for International Settlements Basle, Switzerland: B.I.S. 1981.168pp. np.

Divide and Rule: South Africa's Bantustans. Barbara Rogers, London: International Defence and Aid Fund. 1980. 136pp.£2.00pb. (revised and enlarged 2nd edition).

Adrian Guelke

Cultural Atlas of Africa. Edited by Jocelyn Murray, Oxford: Phaidon. 1981.240pp. £17.95.

Cattle, Economics and Development. Raymond Crotty Slough, England: Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau. 1980. 253pp. np.

World Bank Annual Report. World Bank, Washington, D.C.: World Bank. 1981.210pp. np.

Farm Power in Bangladesh. Vol. 1 G J Gill, Reading, England: Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, University of Reading. 1981. 248pp. £2.00.     

Collapse at the WTO: a Cancun post‐mortem

This article offers an analysis of the collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun in September 2003. It argues that the collapse of the talks should not be regarded as a victory for the developing world, as many have suggested. Rather, the collapse should be seen as the inevitable result of deep‐seated tensions within the wto 's institutional framework, both in terms of the processes that underlie its working and the substance of its agreements. The article argues that these imbalances, if not corrected, will heighten the alienation of developing countries and work to the detriment of the legitimacy and survival of the wto.     

The Poverty of the Doha Round and the Least Developed Countries

Two distinct literatures have emerged on the World Trade Organization's Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and its likely benefits for developing countries. One is built on the use of computable general and partial equilibrium simulations, while another explores the political economy of the negotiation process to explore the opportunities a concluded round will bring for developing countries. Both literatures generate important insights into the DDA, and both highlight that the deal on offer to developing countries is very weak. However, there has been little engagement between these two bodies of thought. This paper seeks to begin to redress this, fusing a review of the simulations of likely DDA gains with an examination of the passage of the Doha negotiations. It argues that through this process we can arrive at a fuller understanding of how limited, and problematic, the results of the DDA are likely to be for the less developed countries. If the DDA is to deliver on its mandate, a qualitative shift in the negotiations is required.     

Book Reviews

The New Politics of British Local Governance. Edited by Gerry Stoker. Macmillan, 2000. Pp.xvii + 294, £16.99 pb.

Local Political Leadership. By Steve Leach and David Wilson. Policy Press, 2000. Pp.v + 228. £17.99.

Structural Reform of British Local Government: Rhetoric and Reality. By Michael Chisholm. Manchester University Press, 2000. Pp.194. £40.

The Careers of Councillors: Gender, Party and Politics. By Catherine Bochel and Hugh M. Bochel. Ashgate, 2000. Pp.143. £37.50 hb.

Communicating Successfully in Groups: A Practical Guide for the Workplace. By Marie Reid and Richard Hammersley. Routledge, 2000. Pp.188. £10.99 pb.

Using Psychology in Management Training: The Psychological Foundations of Management Skills. By David A. Statt. Routledge, 2000. £14.99.

Housing Associations and Housing Policy: A Historical Perspective. By Peter Malpass. Macmillan Press, 2000. Pp.298. £16.99 pb.

The State of UK Housing: A Factfile on Dwelling Conditions. By Philip Leather and Tanya Morrison. The Policy Press, 2000. £15.95 hb.

Allocating Social Housing: Law and Practice in the Management of Social Housing. By Hal Pawson, David Mullins and Siobhan McGrath. Lemos and Crane, 2000. £18.95 pb.     

Social Inequality and Assessments of Democracy and the Market: Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

Considerable comparative scholarly attention has been paid to various aspects of mass support for democracy and the market. However, despite strong theoretical suggestions of a linkage, little is known about the impact of social inequality on this support. We address this issue using evidence from mass surveys undertaken in 12 post-communist states in 2007, supplemented by country-level data about economic and political performance. Specifically, we investigate whether social inequality generates negative perceptions that democracy and the market will lead to social conflict and if it increases support for anti-democratic forms of governance. Notably, we find little link between citizens’ expectations of social conflict and national-level indices of income inequality. However, we do find a link between perceptions of the extent of social inequality and expectations of market-generated—but not democracy-generated—conflict. Underscoring these positive and negative findings, perceptions of social inequality are also clearly consequential for support for ‘strong-hand’ economic government but not for anti-democratic leadership.