Modelling the impact of world bank policy‐based lending: The case of Malawi's agricultural sector

This article uses a multi‐market agricultural pricing model to analyse the impact of the World Bank's three structural adjustment loans (SALs) to Malawi on the smallholder agricultural sector. Three price policy scenarios are simulated on the model representing zero, partial and full compliance with the Bank's SAL price policy conditionality. These scenarios are analysed in terms of their impact on: the government budget; smallholder real incomes; maize production; exportable cash crop production; and the balance of payments. Critiques of the Bank's programme and the government and Bank bargaining strategies are assessed in the light of the modelling results.     

Letters to the editor

The Future of India. Part III of the Report on the Constitutional Problem in India submitted to the Warden and Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford. By R. Coupland, C.I.E., M.A., Hony. D.Litt. (Durham), Fellow of All Souls and Nuffield College, Beit Professor of Colonial History in the University of Oxford. 8/1/2>” x 5/1/2>”. Pp. 207. 6 Maps. Oxford University Press. Price 6s. 6d.

Allenby in Egypt. Being Volume II of Allenby: A Study in Greatness. By Field‐Marshal Viscount Wavell of Cyrenaica and Winchester, G.C.B., C.M.G., M.C., Viceroy of India, Ios. 6d.

Generals and Geographers : the Twilight of Geopolitics. By Hans W. Weigert. Pp. 259. Oxford University Press (New York). $3.00.

Judæa Lives Again. By Norman Bentwich. Pp. 189. Gollancz. 8s. 6d.

Desert. Journey. By George Rodgers. Pp. 151. 44 photographs. Cresset Press. 15s.

Jordan's Tunis Diary. By Philip Jordan. Pp. 256. London: Collins. 1943. 10s. 6d.

Persia in the Early Days of the Pahlavi Régime. By D. Bourke‐Borrowes.

Return to Happiness. By Jonas Lied. Pp. xi+217. 8/3/4>” x 6”. Macmillan. 18s.

Jenghiz Khan. By Squadron‐Leader C. C. Walker. 10” x 6/1/2>”. Pp.216. 7 Maps. Published by Luzac, London. 1940. 17s. 6d.

Tibetan Sentences. By Sir Basil Gould and H. E. Richardson.

India Today and Tomorrow. By Sir Geoffrey de Montmorency. Signpost Booklet. Price 6d.

The Burmese Scene. By Maurice Collis. 7” x 5”. Pp. 60. John Crowther. 5s.

Government by Assassination. By Hugh Byas. George Allen and Unwin. 10s. 6d.

Survey of the Anglo‐Egyptian Sudan, 1898–1941. By K. D. D. Henderson. Kassala at War. By B. Kennedy‐Cooke.

Advisory council for the Northern Sudan: a broadcast     

Silent witness: Australian intelligence and East Timor

The events in East Timor leading up to and immediately following the vote for independence from Indonesia in September 1999, and the attendant breach in Australian-Indonesian relations, posed the greatest challenge to the Australian intelligence agencies and the national security policymaking organization in more than a quarter of a century. On the whole, the intelligence agencies performed very well, producing timely, accurate and informative reports, with the important exception being the under-estimation of the scale of the killings and forced deportations in the fortnight after 4 September, 1999. However, there were serious deficiencies in the national security policy-making organization, and elements of the intelligence community succumbed to political pressures when the Government found some of the intelligence about Indonesian involvement in planning and directing the violence to be unpalatable.     

Local initiatives for working women: Feminism,economics, or both?

This article examines a public/private sector initiative instigated by Leeds City Council to redress gender inequality in employment. It uses this independent initiative, Opp2k, to assess the business case for equality of opportunity in a ‘post‐feminist’ context. It considers whether or not intended outcomes will make a coherent attempt to redress structural inequality, or whether this is a response to demographic and economic trends indicating increased demand for female labour, finally it addresses the potential impact of public/private partnerships in implementing equal opportunities.     

The Racial Bureaucracy: African Americans and the Federal Government in the Era of Segregated Race Relations

This article employs archival research to examine how the segregationist order was introduced and maintained in the Federal civil service between the 1890s and 1945. In the article a racial bureaucracy is defined by two characteristics. First, one group of employees was placed in a subordinate position to others, both formally and informally, as a consequence of their "race." Second, physical working conditions and daily routines were constructed around the segregation of one group of employees because of their race and, furthermore, advancement and promotion within the bureaucracy was delimited by race. This framework is used first, critically to assess two common views of the composition of the US federal government (the local race state thesis and the weak state thesis), and second, to illustrate how segregation impinged directly upon African American employees in a range of agencies and positions.