B. Reviews: general

A HISTORY OF THE ARAB PEOPLES. By ALBERT HOURANI. London, Faber and Faber, 1991. xviii, 551pp. £25 (hb).

STUDIES IN ARAB HISTORY. Edited by DEREK HOPWOOD. (St.Antony's/Macmillan series.) London, Macmillan, 1990. 189pp. 5 plates and 3 figures.

A HISTORY OF THE SELJUKS: ?BRAHIM KAFESOGLU'S INTERPRETATION AND THE RESULTING CONTROVERSY. Translated and edited By GARY LEISER. Carbondale and Edwardsville, Southern Illinois University Press, 1988. 208pp. Genealogical charts, maps in end covers. $29.95.

THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. By JOSHUA PRAWER. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988. xv, 310pp. 5 maps.

ARAB HISTORY AND THE NATION STATE: A STUDY IN MODERN ARAB HISTORIOGRAPHY 1820–1980. By YOUSSEF M. CHOUEIRI. (Exeter Arabic and Islamic Series.) London & New York, Routledge, 1989. xix, 238pp. £35.00

THE END OF EMPIRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: BRITAIN'S RELINQUISHMENT OF POWER IN HER LAST THREE ARAB DEPENDENCIES. By GLEN BALFOUR‐PAUL. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xxiv, 278pp. £30.00.

THE LETTERS OF T.E. LAWRENCE. Edited by MALCOLM BROWN. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991. xi, 564pp. £8.95 (pb).

A PRINCE OF OUR DISORDER: THE LIFE OF T.E. LAWRENCE. By JOHN H. MACK. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990. xxvi, 561pp. £9.95 (pb).

UN GRAND RABBIN SEPHARADE EN POLITIQUE 1892–1923. Presented and edited by ESTHER BENBASSA. Mesnil‐sur‐l'Estrée, CNRS, 1990. 263pp.

THE SUPREME MUSLIM COUNCIL: ISLAM UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE FOR PALESTINE. By URI M. KUPFERSCHMIDT. Leiden, Brill, 1987.

AFTER THE EAGLES LANDED: THE YEMENITES OF ISRAEL. By HERBERT S. LEWIS. Boulder, Westview Press, 1989. xix, 277pp., photographs, glossary.

LAND BEFORE HONOUR: PALESTINIAN WOMEN IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES. By KITTY WARNOCK. (Women in Society: A Feminist List.) London, Macmillan Educational Press, 1990. 199pp.

PEASANT POLITICS IN MODERN EGYPT: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE. By NATHAN BROWN. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1990. 280pp. 2 maps. £25.00.

SOCIETY AND STATE IN THE GULF AND ARAB PENINSULA. By KHALDOUN HASAN AL‐NAQEEB. London and New York, Routledge, 1990. xvii, 206 pp. £35

THE TURBULENT GULF. By LIESL GRAZ. London, I.B. Tauris, 1990. xi, 312pp. £17.95.

IRAN: THE KHOMEINI REVOLUTION (COUNTRIES IN CRISIS). Edited by MARTIN WRIGHT. Contributors: Nick Danziger, Martin Howe, Baqer Moin, Reza Navabpour, Sir Anthony Parsons, Vahe Petrossian, Amit Roy and Martin Wright. London, Longman, 1989. 128pp. Maps, ills. £6.95.

ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS (COUNTRIES IN CRISIS). Edited by MARTIN WRIGHT. Contributors: Paul Cossali, Roger Hardy, Lawrence Joffe, Noah Lucas, David McDowall, Elfi Pallis, Martin Wright. London, Longman, 1989. 131pp. Maps, ills. £6.95.

MAJOR POLITICAL EVENTS IN IRAN, IRAQ AND THE ARABIAN PENINSULA 1945–1990. By TREVOR MOSTYN. New York & London, Facts on File, 1991. xii, 308pp. £14.95.

WOMEN AT WORK IN THE GULF: A CASE STUDY OF BAHRAIN. By MUNIRA A. FAKHRO. London, Kegan Paul International. 184pp. £45.00

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF TURKEY: DEBT, ADJUSTMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY. Edited by TOSUN ARICANLI and DANI RODRIK. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1990. 275pp. £40 (hb).

AFGHANISTAN: A COUNTRY LAW STUDY. By GHOLAM H. VAFAI. Washington, Library of Congress, 1988. 63pp.

RESISTANCE AND CONTROL IN PAKISTAN. By AKBAR S. AHMED. London & New York, Routledge, 1991. xxiii, 207pp. £12.99 (pb).

MASTERING ARABIC: By JANE WIGHTWICK and MAHMOUD GAAFAR. (Macmillan Master Series.) London, Macmillan, 1990. 370pp.

FROM CODE‐SWITCHING TO BORROWING: A CASE STUDY OF MOROCCAN ARABIC. By JEFFREY HEATH. (Library of Arabic Linguistics, monograph 9.) London, Kegan Paul International, 1990. 328pp.

ARISTOTELIAN LOGIC AND THE ARABIC LANGUAGE IN ALFARABI. By SHUKRI B. ABED. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1991. xxv, 201pp.

OGHUSICA AUS IRAN. By GERHARD DOERFER, WOLFRAM HESCHE, JAMSHID RAVANYAR. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1990. ix, 146pp. DM 56.‐

ABBASID BELLES LETTRES. Edited by Julia Ashtiany, T.M. Johnstone, J.D. Latham, R.B. Serjeant and G. Rex Smith. (The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Vol.II, 1.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990. xiii, 517pp.

PENSEE MYTHIQUE, IDEOLOGIE ET ASPIRATIONS SOCIALES DANS UN CONTE DES MILLE ET UNE NUITS. By PATRICE COUSSONNET. (Supplément aux Annales Islamologiques—Cahier no. 13). Cairo, Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1989. 67 pp. 6 plates.

THE MEADOWS OF GOLD: THE ABBASIDS. By MAS'UDI. Tr. and ed. by PAUL LUNDE and CAROLINE STONE. London and New York, Kegan Paul International, 1989. x, 469pp. £30.00

POESlA ESTRÓFICA (CEJELES Y/O MUWA??AHAT) ATRIBUIDA AL MlSTICO GRANADINO A?‐?u?TARI (SIGLO XIII d.C.).(Preedición, traducción, estudio e índices.) By F. CORRIENTE. Madrid, CSIC, Instituto de Filología, Departamento de Estudios Árabes, 1988. [6], 379pp.

ISLAM, THE STRAIGHT PATH. By JOHN L. ESPOSITO. Oxford University Press, 1988. viii, 230pp. £6.95.

TRADITIONAL ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD. By SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR. London, KPI, 1987. x, 335pp.

IN A CALIPH'S KITCHEN: MEDIAEVAL ARABIC COOKING FOR THE MODERN GOURMET. By DAVID WAINES. London, Riad el‐Rayyes Books, 1989. 119pp. 44 colour plates. £14.00.     

North-South Climate Change Negotiations: A Sequential Game with Asymmetric Information

This article determines the conditions under which theSouthern countries should act together, or separately, whilenegotiating with the North about climate change policy andabout the conditions for future Southern engagement. The papermodels the international negotiations with complete and withasymmetric information in a dynamic framework. Results showthat, depending on their characteristics, the differentplayers can obtain benefits delaying the moment of theagreement.     

North American first peoples: slipping up into market citizenship?

This article explores the nature of Aboriginal demands for a citizenship regime grounded in a substantive recognition of cultural difference and inherent rights in Mexico and Canada. It provides an overview of the different evolution of Aboriginal citizenship in each country but focuses on two recent development projects, the Puebla Panama Plan in Mexico and the Mackenzie Valley pipeline in Canada. These cases demonstrate the ways in which neo‐liberal globalism is reshaping the substantive recognition of Aboriginal cultural difference and inherent rights. While contemporary neo‐liberal rhetoric recognizes cultural difference, the models of development employed effectively separate territory from the ideas of self‐government, culture and identity. The article concludes that the neo‐liberal turn in the construction of Aboriginal citizenship undercuts potentially much richer conceptions of Indigenous citizenship offered by the First Peoples of North America.     

Contracting–out social services

Abstract: Despite the enormous share of social services in government spending and the strong incentives on government to rationalize services, the alternative service delivery (asd) literature has given little attention to social–service delivery. In our paper, we review current approaches taken to social–service delivery in Ontario by the Ministry of Community and Social Services (mcss). Although the mcss retains responsibility for the social–services system, it provides social services almost exclusively through private non–profit agencies under purchase of service contracts. Two themes emerge from our examination of these relationships. First, the standard privatization model has limited application to social–services delivery. Contracts are generally not awarded in a competitive fashion, and contract termination discipline is rarely applied. Given the inadequacies of current performance measures for social services, monitoring contract performance is difficult. Second, the success of attempts to shift provision to private non–governmental entities is intimately linked to the effectiveness of accountability mechanisms, especially outcome–based performance measures. Improving performance measurement is therefore an important priority. In addition to advocating further research into the effectiveness of social services, one interesting mcss initiative has been to look to client communities to help monitor the performance of agencies. We conclude that among the different institutional approaches to social–service delivery, contracting with non–profits is the one that currently seem most appropriate. Sommaire: Malgré la part énorme des dépenses gouvernementales consacrée aux services sociaux et malgré les efforts gouvemementaux pour rationaliser les services, les ouvrages publiés sur la prestation de services par des moyens de rechange n'ont consacré que peu d'attention à la prestation des services sociaux. Nous examinons dam cet article les méthodes adoptées pour la prestation des services sociaux en Ontario par le ministére des Services sociaux et communautaires (mssc). Même s'il retient la responsabilité du réseau des services sociaux, le mssc foumit les services sociaux presque exclusivement par I'intermédiaire d'organismes privés à but non lucratif, en vertu de contrats d'achat de services. En examinant ces rapports, nous en dégageons deux thémes. Premiérement, le modéle de privatisation standard ne s'applique que de maniére limitée à la prestation des services sociaux. Les contrats ne sont généralement pas accordés de maniére concurrentielle, et on n'utilise que rarement la résiliation de contrats en tant que mesure disciplinaire. II est difficile de surveiller la qualité d'exécution des contrats, vu l'insuffisance des mesures de rende–ment actuelles concernant les services sociaux. Deuxièmement, le transfert de I'exé–cution aux organismes privés non gouvernementaux ne peut réussir qu'en présence de mécanismes de responsabilisation adéquats, et en particulier de moyens permet–tant de mesurer le rendement en fonction des résultats obtenus. I1 importe donc d'améliorer les moyens de mesure du rendement. Selon le mssc, en plus des recher–ches suppéementaires concernant l'efficacite des services sociaux, il faut faire appel aux groupes de clients pour aider À surveiller le rendement des organismes. En conclusion, parmi les diverses méthodes institutionnelles de prestation des services sociaux, la sous–traitance faisant appel aux secteurs à but non lucratif semble çtre aujourd'hui la plus appropriwaee. [I]t is no exaggeration to say the state and local governments tend not to know what results their social service contracts are buying. Because competition is low, they have little opportunity to test the market to see what alternatives they have. Few resources are spent to look past what contractors themselves report. The political system has few incentives to dig deeper and many more incentives to maintain the status quo— The problems with oversight underline earlier observations: whatever advantages contracting–out for social services might produce, greater efficiency through market–tested competition is not one of them. State and local governments are engaging in the equivalent of a shopping trip while blindfolded, with little effort spent to squeeze the tomatoes or thump the watermelons     

Is the allocation of voting power among EU states fair?

It has often been claimed that the current allocation of votes among EU states is not fair. In this paper we verify this assertion by carrying out an evaluation of the distribution of power among the member states. The results show that the current distribution of votes for the qualified majority does not lead to a fair distribution of power whatever definition of the EU is considered. It can not be claimed however that the current voting process has a systematic bias in favor of certain states. We also present a simple method to derive voting weights which lead to a fair allocation of power.