Reviews

J. S. Prybyla, Market and plan under socialism: The bird in the cage, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1987, xv + 348 pp. p/b $18.95.

Thomas A. Wolf, Foreign Trade in the Centrally Planned Economy, Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1988, ix + 77 pp., $33.00.

Arie Bloed, The External Relations of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1988, xvi + 257 pp., Df1.135, US$66, £39.50.

Roger E. Kanet, ed., The Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Third World, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987, xi + 233 pp., £25.00 h/b.

Stevan K. Pavlowitch, The Improbable Survivor: Yugoslavia and its Problems, 1918 1988, London: C. Hurst & Company, 1988, 167 pp., £17.50 h/b., £7.50 p/b.

Ronald H. Linden, Communist States and International Change: Romania and Yugoslavia in Comparative Perspective, New York: Allen and Unwin, 1987, xviii + 201 pp., £28.00.

Olimpiad S. Ioffe, Soviet Civil Law, Law in Eastern Europe Series, no. 36, Dordrecht, Holland: Martinus Nijhoff, 1988, ix + 383 pp., £62.00.

M. M. Boguslavskii, Private International Law: The Soviet Approach, Law in Eastern Europe Series, no. 35, Dordrecht, Holland: Martinus Nijhoff, 1988, ix + 261 pp., £49.50.

Edward A. Allworth, ed., Tatars of the Crimea: Their Struggle for Survival, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1988, xvi + 396 pp., $52.50.

Timothy Edward O'Connor, Diplomacy and Revolution: G. V. Chicherin and Soviet Foreign Affairs, 1918 1930, Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1988, xx + 250 pp., $24.95.

Aleksander Kan, I Påvente av frigjeringa. Sovjetisk historieteori mellom Stalin og Gor‐batsjov, [Fråtysk ved Jostein Stokkeland] Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo, 1988, 304 pp.

Vladimir N. Brovkin, The Mensheviks after October: Socialist Opposition and the Rise of the Bolshevik Dictatorship, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1987, xviii + 329 pp., $39.95.

Leopold H. Haimson, The Making of Three Russian Revolutionaries: Voices from the Menshevik Past, in collaboration with Ziva Galili y Garcia and Richard Wortman. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987, ix + 515 pp., $49.50, £37.50.

Allen K. Wildman, The End of the Russian Imperial Army, Volume II: The Road to Soviet Power and Peace, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987, xv + 443 pp., £34.40.

Nurit Schleifman, Undercover Agents in the Russian Revolutionary Movement: the SR Party, 1902 14, London: Macmillan, in association with St Antony's College Oxford, 1988, xvii + 222 pp., £29.50.

Christopher Rice, Russian Workers and the Socialist‐Revolutionary Party Through the Revolution of 1905 07, London: Macmillan, 1988, xiv + 272 pp., £33.00.     

Do (Some) Canadian Voters Punish a Prime Minister for Calling a Snap Election?

Are voters willing to punish a prime minister for calling an 'unnecessary' snap election for purely opportunistic reasons? This paper examines voters' reactions to the Canadian prime minister's decision to call a snap election in November 2000. The decision provoked limited resentment, and that resentment was strongest among partisans of the opposition parties and among those who follow politics closely. Those who do not keep up with politics, it seems, either did not realize that the election was precipitous or simply did not care. The paper shows that resentment about the election call was a consideration in vote choice, but it was a decisive consideration for a very small group of voters. We estimate that the electoral cost to the incumbent Liberal Party was one percentage point. Some voters are prepared to punish prime ministers for opportunistically calling a snap election, but in this case the electoral penalty was small.     

Book reviews

Bill Jordan, The New Politics of Welfare (Sage, London, 1998), 260 pp., ISBN 0–7619–6022–8 (pb)

Michael Cox (ed.), Rethinking the Soviet Collapse. Sovietology, the Death of Communism and the New Russia (Pinter, London, 1998), 294 pp., ISBN 1–85567–321–5 (hb), 1–85567–322–3 (pb)

Adrian Little, Post‐industrial Socialism: Towards a New Politics of Welfare (Routledge, London, 1998), 190 pp., ISBN 0–415–17193–8 (hb), 0–415–17194–6 (pb)

Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity (Verso, London and New York, 1998), 143 pp., ISBN 1–85984–222–4 (pb), 1–85984–864–8 (hb)

Adrian Guelke, South Africa in Transition. The Misunderstood Miracle (I. B. Tauris, London, 1999), 224 pp., ISBN 1–86064–343–4 (hb)

Ryan Bishop and Lillian S. Robinson, Night Markets: Sexual Cultures and the Thai Economic Miracle (Routledge, London and New York, 1998), 278 pp., ISBN 0–415–91429–9 (pb)

Frank Field, Stakeholder Welfare (Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 1996), 114 pp., ISBN 0–255 36390–7 (pb)

David G. Green, Reinventing Civil Society; the Rediscovery of Welfare without Politics (Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 1993), 166 pp., ISBN 0–255 36279‐X (pb)

David G. Green, Benefit Dependency; how Welfare Undermines Independence (Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 1998), 49 pp., ISBN 0–255 36433–4 (pb)

Will Hutton, Stakeholding and its Critics (Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 1997), 102 pp., ISBN 0–255 36396–6 (pb)

Lawrence M. Mead, From Welfare to Work; Lessons from America (Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 1997), 155 pp., ISBN 0–255 36399–0 (pb)     

Amicus Brief: Kumho Tire v. Carmichael

Law and Human Behavior -