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.     

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.     

Creating a safer working environment through psychological assessment: A review of a measure of safety consciousness

This article explores how organizations can prevent workplace accidents through the psychological assessment of employees. We present a model of employee safety consciousness consisting of personality and attitudinal variables associated with a higher risk of accident involvement. A safety conscious employee is described as one who: has an internal locus of control in matters related to workplace safety, has a high tolerance for work‐related stress, and avoids engaging in high‐risk, sensation‐seeking activities. Relevant research is reviewed and applications of the safety consciousness construct to hiring, promotion and training are discussed.     

Procyclical government spending: a public choice analysis

Procyclical government spending occurs when government expenditures increase at a faster rate than income in an economic upturn but fall at a faster rate in a recession. Voracity effects occur when competition for increased spending proves more effective as national income increases. Public choice theory can be applied to describe the distribution of fiscal power across different tiers of government to shed insight into competition for intergovernmental transfers. Politicians have electoral incentives to press for intergovernmental transfers but they also have electoral incentives to signal their ability to manage the economy. With this mix of incentives, the prediction is that intergovernmental transfers will be procyclical and that sub-central government spending will be more procyclical than central government spending. Public choice analysis of pressure for increased public spending predicts a specific pattern of cyclical government spending. This pattern can be observed when analyzing government expenditures in 20 OECD countries between 1995 and 2006.     

A revolution in Whitehall? Changes in British central government since 1979

Since the Conservatives came to power in 1979 there have been important changes in British central government which have their intellectual origins in managerialist thinking of the 1960s, but owe their recent implementation to the commitment of the Prime Minister to reform the civil service along lines advocated by ‘new right’ or ‘public choice’ theorists. While most institutional reforms of departments were for political reasons, changes in the processes of the civil service can be seen as an extension of developments beginning with the Rayner Scrutinies, and moving through the Financial Management Initiative and the Efficiency Strategy to Executive Agencies. The British unified civil service is challenged by pressures for fragmentation, but limits to the changes are set by the dominance of the concepts of ministerial responsibility to Parliament, parliamentary audit, and of Treasury control.     

Is ‘competitive’ corporatism an adequate response to Globalisation? Evidence from the low countries

The Dutch practice of negotiated wage restraint and welfare state reform is often held up as a model for effective labour market adjustment. This article examines the distribution of adjustment costs under the Dutch model to determine whether it is stable in the long run ‐ both directly and by analogy with the situation in Belgium. The conclusion is that while the Dutch have succeeded in effecting a remarkable adjustment in the distribution of value‐added, the costs of this adjustment have been skewed against increasingly large sections of society. Should these groups outside the distributional coalition find representation at the national level, the Dutch model for negotiated wage restraint and welfare state reform is likely to revert to political alternation and tit‐for‐tat economic competition.