Book reviews

Reckless Legislation: How Lawmakers Ignore the Constitution by Michael A. Bamberger. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. Pp.ix + 233. $32 hb ISBN 0 8135 2732 5.

An Accidental MP by Martin Bell. London: Viking, 2000. Pp.230 £16.99 hb ISBN 0 670 89231 9.

Politico's Guide to Parliament by Susan Child. London: Politico Publishing, 1999. Pp.vi + 461 £25 hb ISBN 1 902301 23 4.

The European Parliament by Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs and Michael Shackleton. London: John Harper, 4th edn, 2000. £37.50 hb ISBN 0 953 62782 9; £14.95 pb ISBN 0 953 62781 0.

The C‐Span Revolution by Stephen Frantzich and John Sullivan. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. Pp.xiv + 433. $14.95 pb ISBN 0 8061 3130 6.

Pivotal Politics: A Theory of U.S. Lawmaking by Keith Krehbiel. Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 258. £39.55 hb ISBN 0 226 45271 9; £13.50 pb ISBN 0 226 45272 7.

Legislative Enterpreneurship in the U.S. House of Representatives by Gregory Wawro. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 2000. Pp.xiv+193. $39.50 hb ISBN 0 472 11153 1.     

To Crack or Crumble: Use of the Thin Skull and Crumbling Skull Rules

The psycholegal and medicolegal assessment of injury-related physical and psychological impairments and disabilities is fraught with difficulties, including assessing for physical and psychological risk factors. In the injury litigation context, in Canada, issues related to pre-injury physical and psychological risk factors are best captured by the thin skull and crumbling skull rules. A review of court cases in which these rules have been considered suggests that the rules are not applied consistently. This inconsistency in the application of these rules has contributed to conflicting determinations of cause and damages across trial court, appeal court, and Supreme Court cases. This article provides operational definitions of the thin skull and crumbling skull rules, presents a case that involves a series of court decisions that exemplify the difficulties associated with the application of these rules, and provides recommendations for more effective application of the two rules.     

Atlantic capitalism versus Rhine capitalism in the European community

The advent of the Single European Market in 1993 has prompted a debate about the differences between the German social market economy and the British liberal market, and whether these can coexist. ‘Rhine Capitalism’ based on social solidarity will remain a source of competitive advantage through its emphasis on continuous development of labour skills and technology. Britain's ‘Atlantic Capitalism’ lacks such a framework for dialogue between government and producer interests, which will make the creation of a national competitiveness strategy to counter deindustrialisation problematic. At the European Community level, some regulatory framework similar to Germany's Ordnungspolitik will probably emerge to underpin the operation of the Single Market.     

Intelligence Analysis Theory: Explaining and Predicting Analytic Responsibilities

Theoretical work involves explanation and prediction, but thus far there has been little scholarly work explaining and predicting the role of intelligence analysts in support of foreign and national security policies. Without a theory of intelligence, it becomes difficult to decide what the appropriate substantive analytical responsibilities of the intelligence community should be. Accordingly, a theory of foreign intelligence analysis is necessary. This paper presents a theoretical framework developed during the immediate post-Cold War timeframe to explain why there was such a wide variety of perspectives regarding the future need for intelligence, embeds these ideas within the existing intelligence theory literature, applies this framework more generally in a way that can be used to explain variations in the substantive coverage of intelligence analysis in the past and predict possible variations in the future, and then tests the theory's ability to explain the analytical focus of domestic intelligence organizations.     

Evaluating the Quality of Intelligence Analysis: By What (Mis) Measure?

Each of the criteria most frequently used to evaluate the quality of intelligence analysis has limitations and problems. When accuracy and surprise are employed as absolute standards, their use reflects unrealistic expectations of perfection and omniscience. Scholars have adjusted by exploring the use of a relative standard consisting of the ratio of success to failure, most frequently illustrated using the batting average analogy from baseball. Unfortunately even this relative standard is flawed in that there is no way to determine either what the batting average is or should be. Finally, a standard based on the decision-makers' perspective is sometimes used to evaluate the analytic product's relevance and utility. But this metric, too, has significant limitations. In the end, there is no consensus as to which is the best criteria to use in evaluating analytic quality, reflecting the lack of consensus as to what the actual purpose of intelligence analysis is or should be.     

Posner,Bentham and the rule of economy

Law and economics is a prominent but understudied discourse of liberal government. This essay examines the work of Richard Posner, with special attention to his rediscovery of Jeremy Bentham as a founder of law and economics. Posner's new reading of Bentham accurately identifies Bentham as a fellow anti-juridical theorist of government and a fellow believer in the rule of economy. But Bentham's economy makes room for a range of disciplinary appropriations, and Posner's does not. Posner's economy is entirely defined and exhausted by a particular economic doctrine. The essay suggests that civil society has been over-emphasized in the literature contrasting classical and contemporary liberalism. Instead, it turns attention to a common understanding of law as a non-autonomous and flexible tactic of economic government and to the role of the various sciences that can inform it.     

Looking Backwards: 1968 Thirty Years Later 1

This essay is intended to open a discussion about building a coherent account of the decline of AIDS street activism amongst lesbians and gay men in the US in the early 1990s. It does so by demonstrating how a narrative of key events in the rise and decline of this activism can be structured by being linked to the trajectory of racial politics in the larger society. The argument is made that AIDS street activism was ultimately overwhelmed by political isolation caused by the withering of a broader "rainbow politics," and by an expanding white racial backlash in the larger society. In this context there was little room for the political development of movement participants, and movement solidarity was shattered as the broader culture and politics of racial backlash penetrated the movement.     

Central‐city and suburban migration patterns: Is a turnaround on the horizon?

Abstract

The huge population losses that characterized many older, larger U.S. cities during the 1960s and 1970s slowed and in some cases ceased during the 1980s and early 1990s. Periodic media reports of neighborhood turnarounds, commercial revitalization, and improvements in housing and the quality of life in selected inner‐city subareas have been taken as signs that central cities are retaining middle‐class residents and even attracting some back from the suburbs.

Analysis of metropolitan household migration patterns based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 1980 and 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples and more recent Current Population Surveys shows that the dominant trend in residential movement among most population subgroups is still toward the suburbs. While not discounting reports of central‐city neighborhood turnarounds and selective demographic revitalization, our findings imply that those improvements are limited and that a widespread back‐to‐the‐city movement is not likely in the foreseeable future.     

Wrestling Sprawl to the Ground: Defining and measuring an elusive concept

Abstract

The literature on urban sprawl confuses causes, consequences, and conditions. This article presents a conceptual definition of sprawl based on eight distinct dimensions of land use patterns: density, continuity, concentration, clustering, centrality, nuclearity mixed uses, and proximity. Sprawl is defined as a condition of land use that is represented by low values on one or more of these dimensions.

Each dimension is operationally defined and tested in 13 urbanized areas. Results for six dimensions are reported for each area, and an initial comparison of the extent of sprawl in the 13 areas is provided. The test confirms the utility of the approach and suggests that a clearer conceptual and operational definition can facilitate research on the causes and consequences of sprawl.