Why decentralize decision making? English local actors' viewpoints

Decentralized decision making has created restructuring from larger to smaller administrative units, but in many places, strays little from existing arrangements. Moves toward decentralization from central government to city‐regions, and in some areas, below city‐region scale to neighborhoods, reflect a mandate for reform. What is the nature and extent of desired reforms? Using an institutionalist lens, homogeneity and heterogeneity in local narratives about possible future reform can be surfaced. This article emphasizes the importance of understanding the role of local actors' narratives in shaping decentralized institutions. This article uses the findings from a Q‐methodology study to identify and interrogate distinctive local viewpoints on attempts to decentralize decision making in England. In a systematic empirical analysis, local actors' narratives were largely in favor of relatively minor modifications to the status quo. The findings question a conflation of decentralization with participation in decision making.     

Making civic engagement go viral: Applying social epidemiology principles to civic education

This paper explores the connections between education for youth civic engagement and theories and strategies from public health (specifically, epidemiology). We illustrate this with four applications of epidemiologic theory to youth civic engagement: social determinants and fundamental causes, vulnerable populations and cumulative disadvantage, positive spillover, and herd immunity and critical mass. Formalizing concepts of current civics, in schools and the public, as a civic epidemic, we present a case for individual‐ and group‐level interventions based around targeted, school‐based, effective civic education initiatives. Grounded in epidemiological theory, such approaches call attention to the simultaneous need to improve broad civics education and ensure that particular populations receive necessary attentions.     

‘Sharpening the wooden sword’ in Imperial Germany: marital status and education in the work of Helene Lange

This article addresses the views of Helene Lange (1848-1930) in the campaign to reform German female education during the imperial period (1871-1918). A former educator, Lange was a key leader in national discussions of both female education and women's rights. Education, middle-class interests, and marital status formed the pillars of Lange's reformist vision. Lange contended that nineteenth-century education was misguided in its emphasis upon marriage as the primary goal of middle-class female lives. She cited a perceived surplus of unmarried women (Frauenüberschuss) as a key reason to change the nature of female education. Lange saw this surfeit as particularly problematic among the middle and elite classes. In doing so, she acknowledged derogatory depictions of unwed women but inverted such stereotypes in order to promote her cause of improved female education. As a solution for the perceived female surplus, Lange advocated educational and professional experiences that would embrace the maternal character of women. Helene Lange believed that women were not to be educated to compete with men, but to stand beside them in creating a better world – patriarch and matriarch renewed.     

Book reviews

One World to Share: selected speeches of the Commonwealth Secretary‐General, 1975–9. Shridath Ramphal, London: Hutchinson Benham. 1979. 444 pp. £10.95

The White House Years. Henry Kissinger, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson &; Michael Joseph. 1979. 1545 pp. £14.95

Kissinger and the Meaning of History. Peter W Dickson, Cambridge University Press. 1978. 207 pp. £8.95

Beyond Kissinger: ways of conservative statecraft. George Liska, London: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1975. 169 pp. $2.95

Where the Grass is Greener. David M Smith, Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. 1979. 386 pp. £2.25

Small‐Scale Irrigation. Peter Stern, London: Intermediate Technology Publications. 1979. 152 pp. np

The Social and Ecological Effects of Water Development in Developing Countries. Edited by Carl Widstrand, Oxford: Pergamon. 1978. 120 pp. £10.00

Water in a Developing World: the management of a critical resource. Edited by Albert E Utton &; Ludwik Teclaff, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press (distributed in the UK by Ernest Benn). 1978. 282 pp. £13.75

Marx and the End of Orientalism. Bryan S Turner, London: George Allen &; Unwin. 1978. 98 pp. £3.50

Project Planning for Developing Economies. WW Shaner, New York: Praeger. 1979. 235 pp. £14.25

International Development Administration: implementation analysis for development. Edited by G Honadle &; Rudi Klaus, New York: Praeger. 1979. 221 pp. £13.00

Nutrition and National Policy. Edited by Beverly Winikoff, London: MIT Press. 1979. 580pp. £15.75

The Nuclear Question: the United States and nuclear weapons, 1946–76. Michael Mandelbaum, Cambridge University Press. 1979.277 pp £12.50

Force Without War: US armed forces as political instruments. Barry M Blechman &; Stephen S Kaplan, Washington DC: Brookings Institution (distributed in the UK by Blackwells). 1978. 584 pp. £15.00. £6.50 pb

Nuclear Arms in the Third World: US policy dilemma. Ernest W Lefever, Washington DC: Brookings Institution (distributed in the UK by Blackwells). 1979. 154 pp. £8.50. £3.25 pb

The Nonaligned Movement: the origins of a Third World alliance. Peter Willetts, London: Frances Pinter. 1978.310 pp. £12.50

Coups and Earthquakes: reporting the world for America. Mort Rosenblum, New York: Harper &; Row. 1979. 230 pp. £5.95

Nations and States. Hugh Seton‐Watson, London: Methuen. 1979.563 pp. £12.00

Rich World, Poor World. Geoffrey Lean, London: George Allen &; Unwin. 1978.335pp. £4.50 pb

Your Own Pigs You May Not Eat: a comparative study of New Guinea societies. Paula G Rubel and Abraham Rosman University of Chicago Press. 1978.368pp. £14.40

Afterthoughts on Material Civilisation and Capitalism. Fernand Braudel, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1977.120 pp. $7.95

Women in the Muslim World. Edited by Lois Beck &; Nikki Keddie, Harvard University Press. 1979. 698 pp. £18.00

The Economics of Multinational Enterprise. Neil Hood &; Stephen Young, London: Longman Group. 1979. 412 pp. £7.95 pb

The Social and Cultural Impacts of Transnational Enterprises. Krishna Kumar, University of Sydney. Transnational Corporations Research Project (Working Paper No 6). 1979. 183 pp.

A New Stage in International Relations. N I Lebedev, Oxford: Pergamon. 1978. 253 pp. $20.00

The Political and Military Laws of War. J Lider, Farnborough, England: Saxon House. 1979. 266 pp. £10.50.

Becoming Modern. Alex Inkeles &; David H Smith, London: Heinemann Educational. 1974.436 pp. £5.00

The Capitalist World Economy. Immanuel Wallerstein, New York: Cambridge University Press. 1979. 305pp. £15.00

South Africa: the method in the madness. John Kane‐Berman, London: Pluto Press. 1979. 265 pp. £2.95 pb

White Man, We Want to Talk to You. Denis Herbstein, London: Andre Deutsch. 1979. 270 pp. £4.95

Africa Undermined: a history of the mining companies and the underdevelopment of Africa. G Lanning with M Mueller, Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. 1979. 590 pp. £3.50

Africanisation, Nationalisation and Inequality: mining labour and the copper belt in Zambian development. Philip Daniel, Cambridge University Press: 1979.202 pp. £12.50. £5.95 pb

Nasser and His Generation. PJ Vatikiotis, London: Croom Helm. 1978. 375 pp. £11.95

Politics Mainly Indian. W H Morris‐Jones, Bombay: Orient Longman. 1978. 392 pp. Rs 60.00

Papua New Guinea: its economic situation and prospects for development. G W Baldwin et al, London: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1978.223 pp. £4.50 pb

Paradise Postponed: essays on research and development in the South Pacific. Edited by Alexander Mamak &; Grant McCall, Oxford: Pergamon. 1978. 277 pp. £11.25

Urbanisation in Papua New Guinea: a study of ambivalent townsmen. Hal B Levine &; Marlene Wolfzahn Levine, Cambridge University Press. 1979.161 pp. £8.95. £3.95 pb

The Land of Promise: A critique of political Zionism. Abdelwahab M Elmessiri, New Brunswick, New Jersey: North American. 1977.255 pp. $6.95 pb

ASEAN Economies in Perspective: a comparative study of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. John Wong, London: Macmillan. 1979.217 pp. £3.95 pb

China's Role in World Affairs. Michael B Yahuda, London: Croom Helm. 1978. 300 pp. £10.95. £4.95 pb

Mao's China: a history of the People's Republic. Maurice Meisner, New York: Free Press. 1977. 416 pp. np

China and the Major Powers in East Asia. A Doak Barnett, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution (distributed in the UK by Blackwells). 1977. 416 pp. np

Chinese Politics After Mao. Edited by Jurgen Domes, Cardiff, Wales: University College Cardiff Press. 1979. 291 pp. np

São Paolo: growth and poverty. A Report from the São Paolo Peace and Justice Commission, with an introduction by Cardinal Arns, Archbishop of Säo Paulo. London: The Bowerdean Press (in association with The Catholic Institute for International Relations). 1978.128 pp. £3.40

Frontier Development Policy in Brazil: a study of Amazônia. Dennis J Mahar, New York: Praeger. 1979.182 pp. £10.50

Arise Ye Starvelings: the Jamaican labour rebellion of 1938 and its aftermath. Ken Post, London: Institute of Social Studies/The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. 1979.502 pp. np

The Future of the Inter‐American System. Edited by TJ Farer, London: Praeger. 1979. 290 pp. £13.00     

Expert Testimony on Psychological Injury: Procedural and Evidentiary Issues

This article introduces psychologists to aspects of the legal process most pertinent to their role as expert witnesses in civil litigation. It summarizes the role of psychological evidence in the adjudication of common law tort claims, the structure of the court system, and the stages of the litigation process. It also explains the various roles a psychological expert may play during litigation and the implications of those roles for expert confidentiality and disclosure. The article then provides an overview of legal policy governing the admissibility of psychological expertise, especially as admissibility is affected by the “Daubert” standard applied in most North American courts.