Reviews

Janos Kornai, Highways and Byways. Studies on Reform and Post‐Communist Transition. Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 1995, xv + 241 pp., £26.95

Ha‐Joon Chang & Peter Nolan (eds), The Transformation of the Communist Economies: Against the Mainstream. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1995, xii, + 438 pp., £47.50.

Paul Cook & Frederick Nixson (eds), The Move to the Market?: Trade and Industry Policy Reform in Transitional Economies. London: Macmillan, 1995, xvi + 280 pp., £45.00.

Tom Gallagher, Romania after Ceausescu. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995, viii + 267 pp., £16.95.

Carol Barner‐Barry & Cynthia A. Hody, The Politics of Change. The Transformation of the Former Soviet Union. New York: St Martin's Press, 1995, xi + 371 pp., £14.99.

Daniel Orlovsky (ed.), Beyond Soviet Studies. Washington: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1995, xi + 349 pp., £20.50.

Aleksandr Gurov, Krasnaya Mafiya, Moscow: Samotsvet, 1995, 328 pp., no price.

Beatrice F. Manz (ed.), Central Asia in Historical Perspective. Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press, 1994, x + 245 pp., £40.95.

H. B. Paksoy (ed.), Central Asia Reader—The Rediscovery of History. Armonk and London: M. E. Sharpe, 1994, ix + 206 pp., $60.00 h/b $21.95 p/b.

Peter Ferdinand (ed.), The New States of Central Asia and Their Neighbours. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, for The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1994, 120 pp., $14.95.

Michael Mandelbaum (ed.), Central Asia and the World—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1994, 251 pp., $16.95

Stephen Kotkin & David Wolff (eds), Rediscovering Russia in Asia: Siberia and the Russian Far East. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1995, xxiii + 356 pp., $65.00 h/b, $24.95 p/b.

Suzanne Goldenberg, Pride of Small Nations: The Caucasus and Post‐Soviet Disorder. London: Zed Books, 1994., xvi + 233 pp., £14.95.

Levon Chorbajian, Patrick Donabedian & Claude Mutafian, The Caucasian Knot: The History and Geo‐politics of Nagorno‐Karabagh. London: Zed Books, 1994, xxi + 198 pp., £14.95.

Shireen T. Hunter, The Transcaucasus in Transition. Nation‐building and Conflict. Washington, DC: The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1994, xiii + 223 pp., $19.95.

Edward Allworth (ed.), Muslim Communities Reemerge. Historical Perspective on Nationality, Politics and Opposition in the Former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, trans. Caroline Sawyer. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 1994, xii + 365 pp., £57.00 h/b, £23.50 p/b.

S. Frederick Starr (ed.), The Legacy of History in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1994, xiii + 313 pp., $22.95.

Vladimir Shlapentokh, Munir Sendich & Emil Payin (eds), The New Russian Diaspora: Russian Minorities in the Former Soviet Republics. London: M. E. Sharpe, 1994, xxv + 221 pp., £48.00 h/b, £19.00 p/b.

Michael Rywkin, Moscow's Lost Empire. New York & London: Armonk, M. E. Sharpe, 1994, xiii + 214 pp., £40.00 h/b, £16.00 p/b.

Tobias R. Philibin III, The Lure of Neptune. German‐Soviet Naval Collaboration and Ambitions, 1919–1941. University of South Carolina, 1994, xxi + 192 pp., $34.95.

Yu. L. Dyakov & T. S. Bushueva, The Red Army and the Wehrmacht. How the Soviets Militarised Germany, 1922–1933, and Paved the Way for Fascism. New York: Prometheus Books 1995, 348 pp., £21.00.

Iosif Stalin v ob"yatiyakh sem'i: iz lichnogo arkhiva (Sbornik dokumentov), compiled by Yu. G. Murin, edited by V. N. Denisov. Moscow: Rodina, 1993, 222 pp., no price.

Donald Rayfield, The Literature of Georgia. A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, xvi + 360 pp., £35.00.

Susan Layton, Russian Literature and Empire: Conquest of the Caucasus from Pushkin to Tolstoy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, xiii + 354 pp., £40.00.

Arto Luukkanen, The Party of Unbelief: The Religious Policy of the Bolshevik Party 1917–1929. Helsinki; Studia Historica 48, 1994, 274 pp., no price.

John Fennell, A History of the Russian Church to 1448. London: Longman, 266 pp., £12.99.     

The World Bank, Governance and Theories of Political Action in Africa

This article considers the World Bank as a political thinker. This involves an interpretation of the values, methodologies, and theoretical references contained within the Bank's governance documentation. Generally, the Bank steers away from a serious engagement with the nature of states, or the dynamics of reform execution, even in its more detailed policy documents in reform areas such as administrative reform. But, by looking at the World Bank's involvement in African states, we can understand the ways in which the World Bank works with certain expectations concerning how reforms will work. The article critically analyses the Bank's 'political vision' by comparing it with prominent theories of African politics. The article concludes that the World Bank's governance agenda misses three pivotal aspects of African politics: the unity of political and economic power, the extreme openness of African states to external pressures, and the salience of historically-embedded cultural and political relations. These three points directly raise important questions about the prospects of good governance reforms in Africa, and the involvement of the Bank therein.     

Reviews

Paul R. Gregory, Restructuring the Soviet Economic Bureaucracy. Soviet Interview Project Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, xii+181 pp., £25.00, $37.50.

Thane Gustafson, Crisis Amid Plenty—The Politics of Energy under Brezhnev and Gorbachev. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989, xxv+362 pp., $29.95.

John M. Kramer, The Energy Gap in Eastern Europe. Lexington: D. C. Heath, 1990, xiii+200 pp., $39.00.

William Moskoff, ed., Perestroika in the Countryside: Agricultural Reform in the Gorbachev Era. New York and London: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1990, xii+135 pp.

Wlodzimierz Bras & Kazimierz Laski, From Marx to Market. Socialism in Search of an Economic System. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, 177 pp.

B. P. Kurashvili, Strana na rasput'e. (Poteri i perspektivy perestroiki). Moscow: Yuridicheskaya literature, 1990, 176 pp., 60K.

Lajos Héthy, Mária Ladó & John E. M. Thirkell, eds, New Collective Forms of Work Organisation in Eastern Europe. Budapest: Institute of Labour Research, 1989, 210 pp.

Michael Kraus & Ronald D. Leibowicz, Perestroika and East‐West Economic Relations: Prospects for the 1990s. Geonomics Institute for International Economic Advancement Studies. New York: New York University Press, x+357 pp., $44.00.

George E. Hudson, ed., Soviet National Security Policy under Perestroika. London: Unwin Hyman, 1990, xv+343 pp., £38.00 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Christoph Bluth, New Thinking in Soviet Military Policy. London: Pinter Publishers, 1990, viii+118 pp., £19.50 h/b, £7.95 p/b.

David E. Albright, Vanguard Parties and Revolutionary Change in the Third World: Soviet Perspectives and Their Implications. Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley: Policy Papers in International Affairs, No. 38, 1990, 126 pp., $9.50 p/b.

George Ginsburgs, ed., Soviet Administrative Law: Theory and Policy. Law in Eastern Europe, No. 40, issued by the Documentation Office for East European Law, University of Leiden. General Editor: F. J. M. Feldbrugge, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1989, 516 pp., £92.50.

Albert J. Schmidt, ed., The Impact of Perestroika on Soviet Law. Law in Eastern Europe, No. 41, issued by the Documentation Office for East European Law, University of Leiden. General Editor: F. J. M. Feldbrugge, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1990, 558 pp., £117.00.

Lynn Mally, Culture of the Future. The Proletkult Movement in Revolutionary Russia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990, xxix+306 pp., $37.50.

Hans Günther, ed., The Culture of the Stalin Period. London: Macmillan, 1990, xxi+291 pp., £47.50.

George Sanford, ed. and trans., The Solidarity Congress, 1981: The Great Debate. London: Macmillan, 1990, x+270 pp., £40.00.

Ronald I. Kowalski, The Bolshevik Party in Conflict. London: Macmillan, 1991, x+244 pp., £35.00.     

Too close to home: Dioxin contamination of breast milk and the political agenda

Both the Canadian and U.S. governments have determined that breast-fed infants are among the populations most exposed to dioxins, receiving levels of exposure orders of magnitude above those considered acceptable. In light of the political controversy associated with dioxins and the cultural significance of breast milk as a symbol of purity, one might have expected dioxin contamination of breast milk to achieve prominence on both the popular and governmental agendas. Yet as this article demonstrates, this issue has received less media and governmental attention than other environmental issues believed to present comparable or lower health risks. Consistent with recent literature on agenda denial strategies, there is some evidence that efforts by environmental groups to publicize levels of breast milk contamination have been rebuffed by government officials, physicians, and breastfeeding advocacy groups fearful that women will stop breastfeeding. However, what is more striking is just how seldom environmentalists have attempted to reframe this issue. The article argues that North American environmentalists have consciously chosen not to press the dramatic issue of breast milk contamination out of concern that mothers would discontinue breastfeeding, as well as personal anxiety about an issue that fundamentally challenges conceptions of our own bodies and our relationships with our children. Their self-restraint challenges the depiction by some authors of environmental groups as eager to capitalize on any opportunity to provoke public concern and outrage to advance their agenda. The case study also suggests that the literature on agenda setting must look beyond active strategies of agenda denial by economically and politically powerful interests, to the role of shared cultural values in shaping – and restricting – the political agenda.     

To Tell the Truth: Ad Watch Coverage,Ad Tone,and the Accuracy of Political Advertising

This study examined the relationships among newspaper ad watch coverage, ad tone, and the accuracy of political advertising. A sample of political advertisements (N = 160) was drawn from the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG) database and other sources for eight U.S. Senate races. Two experts on each race evaluated the ads’ accuracy and their ideological portrayals of candidates, while trained coders analyzed other aspects of the ads. Ad watch coverage from these races (ad watch N = 109) also was content-analyzed. The number of ad watches overall in a race and the number that explicitly criticized ads were positively related with the level of accuracy of political ads and with a tendency to portray their favored candidates closer to their actual ideological position—but the overall number of ad watches also was positively related with a tendency for ads to portray opponents as more extreme than their positions warranted. Ad watches usually tend to scrutinize negative ads more, but ad watch coverage in this study was unrelated with ad tone and with the number of negative ads in a race. Positive ads were rated as more accurate but also more prone to exaggerate the supported candidates’ centrism compared to other ads. Normative and practical implications are discussed.

We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.

— Neil Newhouse, pollster for the Mitt Romney 2012 campaign     

Differentiated legitimacy,differentiated resilience: beyond the natural in ‘natural disasters’

This paper starts with a flood in southern Malawi. Although apparently a ‘natural’ event, those most affected argued that it was made much worse by the rehabilitation of a nearby irrigation scheme. We use this example to interrogate the current interest in resilience from a perspective informed by political ecology and political economy, arguing that a focus on resilience should not be at the expense of understanding the conditions that shape vulnerability, including the ways in which ‘communities’ are differentiated. Complex factors are at play – and the ways in which these combine can result in a ‘perfect storm’ for some individuals and households. These factors include the effects of history combining with ethnicity, of legitimacy influencing voice, and of the interplay of political dynamics at different levels. In particular, processes of commodification have played an important role in shaping how some may benefit at the cost of catastrophic harm to others.     

Hemorrhagic Retinopathy and Optic Nerve Sheath Hemorrhage Associated With Fatal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage from a Ruptured Intracranial Aneurysm Due to Segmental Fibromuscular Dysplasia

Fibromuscular dysplasia is an idiopathic, nonatheromatous, and noninflammatory arterial disease that most commonly affects the renal and carotid arteries. We report a child with subarachnoid and ocular hemorrhage associated with an aneurysm due to fibromuscular dysplasia. Computed tomography following a witnessed collapse revealed diffuse subarachnoid hemorrhage and severe cerebral edema. An autopsy confirmed the radiographic findings and detected bilateral retinal hemorrhages, optic nerve sheath hemorrhages, and a ruptured saccular aneurysm due to focal fibromuscular dysplasia involving the intracranial right vertebral artery. This case documents a fatal subarachnoid hemorrhage in a child with an intracranial saccular aneurysm caused by fibromuscular dysplasia. The associated retinal hemorrhages are easily detected by postmortem monocular indirect ophthalmoscopy.     

The effect of stakeholder culture on managers’ perceptions of stakeholder attributes in Australian not-for-profit organizations

We examine the relation between stakeholder culture and managers’ perceptions of stakeholder attributes of power, legitimacy, and urgency in Australian not-for-profit (NFP) organizations. Examination of this relation is important because managers’ perceptions of stakeholder attributes determine how stakeholder relationships are managed, which affects (positively or negatively) the ability of NFP organizations to fulfil their social mission. Data were collected through a survey of top managers of 478 NFP organizations. Our results show that the stakeholder cultures of altruist and instrumentalist, manifesting different moral values, differentially affect NFP managers’ perceptions of the three stakeholder attributes for clients and government. Specifically, an altruist stakeholder culture affects managers’ perception of client legitimacy, while an instrumentalist culture affects managers’ perception of government power. We also investigate the mediating effects of power and legitimacy on the relation between stakeholder cultures and urgency. We find that managers’ perceptions of power and legitimacy act as crucial cues for managers to perceive stakeholder urgency. Our study contributes to the stakeholder management literature and has important implications for managers of NFP organizations in managing stakeholder relationships in the contemporary environment.