Protecting Local Governments from Arbitrary State and Federal Interference: What Prospects for the 1990s?

The number of local governments in Nigeria has been fixed at453 by the 1989 Constitution. The key purpose of this provisionis to prevent state governments from creating local governmentsand altering local-government boundaries for political purposes.The provision is part of a larger program of localgovernmentreform undertaken by the federal military government to ensurethe integrity and autonomy of democratically elected local governmentsunder the Third Republic. States are limited in their abilityto intervene in local government affairs, and the federal governmenthas certain direct powers and responsibilities for local governments.Whether these reforms will achieve their intended objectives,however, is arguable.     

Intergovernmental Management: Federal Changes, State Responses, and New State Initiatives

This article surveys state responses and new state initiativesin 1983 to three sets of successive federal changes in domesticpolicy. Collectively referred to as the New Federalism, thesechanges include the block grants and accompanying regulatoryreforms of 1981, the changes in Medicaid reimbursement policyof 1982, and the job training and development programs of late1982 and early 1983. Following a brief overview of these changesin intergovernmental management perspective, state responsesin 1983 are examined in three areas—policy development,policy and program management, and service delivery management.     

The Effects of Democracy on Economic Growth and Inequality: A review

What effects does political democracy have on such development outcomes as economic growth and socioeconomic equality? Competing theoretical models have been proposed that represent each of the possibilities: democracy as facilitating development, democracy as a hindrance to development, and democracy as bearing no independent relationship to development outcomes. Each of these theoretical models is explicated and, then, the evidence from quantitative, cross-national tests of the effects is reviewed. Overall, the evidence provided by the approximately dozen studies for each outcome yields few robust conclusions with respect to the theoretical models. To guide in the evaluation of the evidence, the studies are in turn distinguished by such design characteristics as sample, period observed, measures used, and form of relationship specified. This procedure, while it does not produce definitive support for any of the models, does assist in interpreting the results of past research as well as generating fertile guidelines for future research.     

General fund financing versus earmarked taxes: An alternative model of budgetary choice in a democracy

This paper presents an alternative model of budgetary choices in a direct democracy. Our model is not only more consistent with the underlying assumptions of consumer theory, but also is easier to apply to the study of problems such as the impact of lump-sum subsidies, changes in the costs of production, and so forth, on the equilibrium levels of collective variables.The model appears to account for the hitherto inexplicable perverse results that plague many of the general fund financing models discussed in the literature to date.     

Reviews

John L. H. Keep, The Russian Revolution: A Study in Mass Mobilisation. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977. 614 pp. £12.50.

Archie Brown and Jack Gray (eds.), Political Culture and Political Change in Communist States. London: Macmillan, 1977. xiii+286 pp. £10.00.

Mary McAuley, Politics and the Soviet Union. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977. 352 pp. £1.50.

G. P. van den Berg, De regering van Rusland en de Sovjet‐Unie. Leiden: 1977. 258 pp. English summary.

Richard Lowenthal, Model Or Ally: Communist Powers and the Developing Countries, London: OUP, 1977. x+400 pp. £12.95.

Martin McCauley, Khrushchev and the Development of Soviet Agriculture. The Virgin Land Programme 1953–1964. London: Macmillan, 1976. 232 pp. £10.00.

Robert W. Campbell, Trends in the Soviet Oil and Gas Industry. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press for Resources for the Future, 1976. xiv+125 pp.

Joseph S. Berliner, The Innovation Decision in Soviet Industry. Cambridge, Mass, and London: The MIT Press, 1976. ix+561 pp. £23.80.

James Riordan, Sport in Soviet Society. London: CUP, 1977. xi+435 pp. £10.00.

Robert Auty and Dimitry Obolensky (eds.), Companion to Russian Studies. Volume 2. An Introduction to Russian Language and Literature. London: CUP, 1977. 300 pp. £11.50.

Frederick C. Barghoorn, Detente and the Democratic Movement in the USSR. New York and London: The Free Press/Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1976. x+230 pp. $12.95.

Rudolf L. Tokés (ed.), Dissent in the USSR. Politics, Ideology, and People. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975. xvi+464 pp. £7.75.

Alexander Yanov, Detente after Brezhnev: The Domestic Roots of Soviet Foreign Policy. Translated by Robert Kessler. (Policy Papers in International Affairs, No. 2.) Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1977. x+90 pp. $3.00.

Nirmala Joshi, Foundations of Indo‐ Soviet Relations: A Study of Non‐Official Attitudes and Contacts, 1917–1947. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1975. 204 pp. Rs. 30.

J. P. Jain, Soviet Policy Towards Pakistan and Bangladesh. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1974. 258 pp. Rs. 50. $11.50.

Paul E. Lydolph, Geography of the U.S.S.R. Third edition. New York: Wiley, 1977. xi+495 pp.