Book reviews

Lena Jonson, The Tajik War: A Challenge to Russian Policy (Discussion Paper No. 74) London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1998. Pp.54, no index. NP. ISBN 1‐ 86203–061–8.

Charles‐Philippe David and Jacques Lévesque (eds.), The Future of NATO: Enlargement, Russia and European Security. Montreal: McGill‐Queen ‘s University Press, 1999. Pp.xii + 261, incl. notes, no index. Cdn $65 (cloth); Cdn $22.95 (paper). ISBN 0–7735–1850–9 and 1872‐X (paper).

Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett (eds.), Security Communities. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xiii + 462, index. $69.95 (cloth); $24.95 (paper). ISBN 0–521–63953–0 and ‐63051–7.

A.S. Panarin, Global'noe politicheskoe prognozirovanie v usloviyakh strategicheskoy nestabil'nosti [A Global Political Forecast under Conditions of Strategic Instability]. Moscow: Editorial URSS, 1999, Pp.277. NP. ISBN 5–8360–0027–1.

Nikolai Bindyukov and Petr Lopata, Osobaya tret'ya sila: Novyy politicheskiy fenomen [The Special Third Force: A New Political Phenomenon]. Moscow: ITRK, 1999. Pp.321. NP. ISBN 5–88010–066–9.

A. Podberezkin and V. Makarov, Stategiya dlya budushchego prezidenta Rossii: Russkiy put’ [A Strategy for the Future President of Russia: The Russian Path]. Moscow: Dukhovnoe Nasledie, 2000. Pp.168. 21 Rubles. ISBN 5–86014–106–8.

Nash put’: Strategicheskie perspektivy razvitiya Rossii v XXI veke: Tezisy kontspetual'nogo proekta [Our Path: Strategic Perspectives on the Development of Russia in the 21st Century: The Theses of a Conceptual Project], Moscow: ZAO ‘Russkoe Zoloto (A. P. Tarantsev), 1999. Pp.143. 49 Rubles. ISBN 5–8186–0002–5.     

What Do We Know About Village-Level Change and Stasis in India?

The study documents considerable spatial variation in change and stasis in development outcomes over the decade from 2001 to 2011 (proxied by women’s literacy and child sex ratio) even across villages within the same micro-region (taluk or sub-taluk) and with similar starting points. However, neither decentralization policy / practice nor other forms of public policy has identified village-level factors that mediate the impact of policy. Although extant literature has explored spatial variation, it has not explored such variation across different micro-regions of India, nor has it used methodologies that validate explanatory inference from spatial-longitudinal comparisons. The article notes that the degree of spatial variation in change over such a short period of time is remarkably similar across different micro-regions of the country. It also proposes a tentative methodology for identifying village pairs to produce more rigorous comparative longitudinal analysis of the drivers of development change and stasis.     

Ties That Bind? Effects of Inter‐level Mobility on MP Attitude to Local Government in Two Scandinavian Countries

The aim of this article is to examine to what degree the movement of elected representatives from local to central level affects the outlook of the ones who move ‘upwards’. Two Scandinavian countries – Sweden and Norway – serve as comparative cases. In both countries a high share of members of parliament (MPs) has served as local councillors before being elected to parliament. According to conventional wisdom, this high share of inter‐level mobility would strengthen ties between government tiers. Hence, parliamentarians with local political background are assumed to have greater confidence in the capacities of local government. It turns out that Sweden corresponds to this assumption, while the Norwegian results to some extent contradict the same hypothesis. In the Norwegian case, MPs who previously held office as local councillors are actually more sceptical towards local government than MPs with no experience from local politics. In the last section of the article a number of explanations for the disparate findings are being discussed. For one, it appears to be a higher level of controversy related to local government in Norway than in Sweden. In turn, this accounts for some of the scepticism being expressed by the very MPs who themselves have held local office. Second, greater financial dependency in the Norwegian case creates incentives for strategic action which, in turn, might undermine confidence between levels of government. These are strategies that are harder to conceal vis‐à‐vis MPs who have themselves gained experience from local politics.     

Labor Unions and White Racial Politics

Scholars and political observers point to declining labor unions, on the one hand, and rising white identity politics, on the other, as profound changes in American politics. However, there has been little attention given to the potential feedback between these forces. In this article, we investigate the role of union membership in shaping white racial attitudes. We draw upon research in history and American political development to generate a theory of interracial labor politics, in which union membership reduces racial resentment. Cross‐sectional analyses consistently show that white union members have lower racial resentment and greater support for policies that benefit African Americans. More importantly, our panel analysis suggests that gaining union membership between 2010 and 2016 reduced racial resentment among white workers. The findings highlight the important role of labor unions in mass politics and, more broadly, the importance of organizational membership for political attitudes and behavior.     

Are qualified majority rules special?

This essay provides a formal justification for qualified majority rules. Specifically, within an uncertain dichotomous choice framework, in which individual preferences are identical but actual judgments may differ, special majority rules emerge as decision rules that maximize the probability of making correct decisions. The main result specifies the optimal special majority as a function of a priori bias in favor of the status quo, ability, and size of the decision-making body. The analysis of the relationships among these three variables in generating certain common qualified majority rules is then pursued.     

Media Freedom and Political Debate in the Digital Era

This article examines the impact of online expression on theories of media freedom. While media freedom has generally been justified instrumentally, the opportunities for expression via the Internet may require greater emphasis on the interests of the individual speaker. Despite this development, this article shows how a small number of speakers will still command a much wider audience and have greater influence over political debate. For such speakers the approach to media freedom devised in the mass media era will remain applicable.     

Suicides by starter's pistols and air guns

We report the case of a 25-year-old depressed woman who committed suicide with a starter's pistol loaded with CS tear-gas ammunition. The propellant gases of the contact shot entered her chest through the left sixth intercostal space. Exsanguination was caused by perforations of the pericardium and apex of the heart. Autopsy did not reveal any metallic or other foreign bodies that might have originated from the propellant, the cartridge, or any bulletlike material. Her injuries were thus caused by the propellant alone. 0.5 mg L-1 of the CS degradation product cyanide was detected in the cardiac blood. We also report the case of a 54-year-old man, suffering from depressive psychosis, who committed suicide with an air rifle. The lead-pointed Diabolo bullet entered his brain through the right large wing of the sphenoid bone, traversed the right temporal brain pole, damaged the right middle cerebral artery and the right optic tract, and finally lodged in the left central ganglia. There was extensive basal subdural hemorrhage and tamponade of all cerebral ventricles. Death was attributed to cerebral failure. We furthermore list another 26 cases of suicide by rarely used weapons from 1947 to 1989.     

The role of epistemic communities: local think tanks,international practitioners and security sector reform in Kosovo

ABSTRACT

Security sector reform (SSR) in Kosovo remains complex and challenging. The existing approach is heavily driven by international agencies. This article addresses the question: What role is played by local research in Kosovo’s SSR? This study focuses on the challenges that local research poses to internationally led SSR in Kosovo, and the contribution that local researchers make to the decision-making of international practitioners. In Kosovo, local research organizations produce research analysing and critiquing international SSR and offering alternative approaches. The study builds on existing studies of epistemic communities and research use in policy-making and new evidence based on the author’s interview survey of researchers and policy-makers in Kosovo. The article argues that focusing on the interaction between local researchers and international policy practitioners provides valuable insight into the construction of Kosovo’s SSR. The study deconstructs the structures, processes and agencies at the heart of the local/international relationship. It explains how local research on topics of security, justice and rule of law, and its interaction with international practitioners, challenges international SSR and contributes to international SSR decision-making.     

Politics and the Price of Rice in Thailand: Public Choice,Institutional Change and Rural Subsidies

Despite the Thai state’s long record of rice market interventions, historically politicians failed to leverage rice subsidies in their pursuit of political support, notwithstanding the large number of farmers in the country. Since Thaksin Shinawatra’s election in 2001, though, each government has subsidised rice producers, although at varying degrees. What explains this change? This article traces the four-decade history of rice price support programmes. It is proposed that these policies be interpreted through the dual lens of institutionalism and public choice theory, demonstrating how political institutions have shaped incentives for politicians to cater to different constituencies. During the pre-1980 period, under authoritarian regimes, Thai leaders applied rice price policies to benefit urban consumers and the government. From 1979 through 2000, following implementation of the block-vote system, rice interventions were used to appeal to voting intermediaries like rice millers, as bargaining chips among competing parties and as stopgap measures to diffuse farmer protests. Since 2001, responding to the electoral system created by the 1997 constitution, politicians have appealed directly to the voting public, seeking broad-based support via subsidies. The analysis highlights the impact that shifting institutional incentives have on politicians’ actions and thus the emergent policies.     

Collective decision making and the limits on the organization's size

This essay clarifies the relationship between the technology of organizational decision making and the limits on the size of the group of decision makers within the organization. Viewing the number and quality of decision makers, and the time required for decision making as inputs in the production of collective decisions, we show that there exist generic organizational forces that offset the incentive to unlimited expansion of the organization. Even in a long run competitive environment with perfect markets for managers, unlimited duplication of the firm may not be economically feasible. We first analyze in a general setting and then illustrate in two stylized examples, the interplay between individual decisional quality, time required for an individual decision, direct and indirect costs of decision making, and the optimal number of decision makers (for example, management size).We are indebted to an anonymous referee of this journal and to P. Aranson for their very helpful comments and suggestions.