Book reviews

Alexandre Bennigsen and S. Enders Wimbush, Muslims of the Soviet Empire: a Guide. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1986, xviii + 294 pp., $24.95, Foreword by Hans Bräker.

Viktor Kozlov, The People of the Soviet Union. Bloomington, Indiana and London: Indiana University Press and Hutchinson, 1988, xi + 251 pp., $45 (Pauline M. Tiffen, Trans.; Michael Rywkin, Intro.).     

Book reviews

Central Asia and the Caucasus After the Soviet Union: domestic and international dynamics Mohiaddin Mesbahi (Ed.) Gainsville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1994, x, 353 pp, $49.95 cloth, $24.95 paper

Central Asia in Historical Perspective Beatrice F. Manz (Ed.) Boulder, Colorado and Oxford, UK: Westview Press, 1994, xii, 254 pp, $54.95/£40.95

The New Central Asia and its Neighbours Peter Ferdinand (Ed.) The Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, Pinter Publishers, 1994, 120 pp, £9.99, paper

Central Asia. 130 Years of Russian Dominance, a Historical Overview Edward Allworth (editor) Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, London: Academic & University Publishers Group, 1994, 647 pp, illus., £25.50/£65

Commonwealth or Empire? Russia, Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus William E. Odom and Robert Dujarric Indianapolis, Indiana: Hudson Institute, 1995, 290 pp, $12.95 paperback

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the former Soviet Union Archie Brown, Michael Kaser and Gerald Smith (editors) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994, 604 pp, illus, index, £40

Kyrghyzes and Their Ancestors: untraditional overview on the history and modernity T. Koychuev, V. Mokrynin and V. Ploskih Kyrghyzy i ih predki: Netraditsionnyi vzglaid na istoriu i sovremennost.Bishkek: Kyrghyzskaia Ensiklopedia, 1994, 128 pp, ISBN 5–89750–058–6

Independent Kyrghyzstan: Third Approach T. Koychuev & A. Brudnyi Nezavisimyi Kyrghyzstan: Tretii put. Bishkek: Ilim, 1993. 143 pp

Russians in the Former Soviet Republics Paul Kolstoe London: Hurst & Company, 1995, 272 pp, biblio, index, £37 hardback

The Revenge of the Past. Nationalism, Revolution and the Collapse of the Soviet Union Ronald Grigor Suny Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press/Cambridge University Press, 1993, 200 pp, £10.95 paper

Black Sea Neal Ascherson London: Jonathan Cape, 1995, 306 pp, chronology, index, £17.99

Turkey in Post‐Soviet Central Asia Gareth Winrow London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, 53 pp, £9.50

The Rise of the Indo‐Afghan Empire, c. 1710–1780 Jos J. L. Gommans Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994, 219 pp, appendices, index, biblio, $65.75

Revolutionary Horizons. Regional Policy in Post‐Khomeini Iran John Calabrese Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK: Macmillan Press, 1994, 221 pp, biblio, index, £40

The Cambridge History of China/Volume 6, Alien regimes and border states, 907–1368 Dennis Twitchett (Ed.) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994, xxix + 864 pp, £80

China Deconstructs. Politics, Trade and Regionalism David S. G. Goodman and Gerald Segal (Eds) London: Routledge, 364 pp, 1994, £40/£12.99 paperback     

UNPACKING COMPLEX MEDIATION MECHANISMS AND THEIR HETEROGENEITY BETWEEN SITES IN A JOB CORPS EVALUATION

This study aims to test the theory underlying Job Corps, one of the largest education and training programs in the U.S. serving disadvantaged youth. Central to the program are vocational training and general education that serve as two concurrent mediators transmitting the program impact on earnings. To distinguish the relative contribution of each, we develop methods for decomposing the Job Corps impact on earnings into an indirect effect transmitted through vocational training, an indirect effect transmitted through general education, and a direct effect attributable to supplementary services. We further ask whether general education and vocational training reinforce each other and produce a joint impact greater than the sum of the two separate pathways. Moreover, we examine the heterogeneity of each causal effect across all the Job Corps centers. This article presents concepts and methods for defining, identifying, and estimating not only the population averages but also the between‐site variance of these causal effects. Our analytic procedure incorporates a series of weighting strategies to enhance the internal and external validity of the results and assesses the sensitivity to potential violations of the identification assumptions.     

Inter-municipal cooperation,economies of scale and cost efficiency: an application of stochastic frontier analysis to Dutch municipal tax departments

Inter-municipal cooperation is increasingly popular in European countries. Saving cost is a key motivation. This paper analyses the relation between inter-municipal cooperation and cost efficiency among Dutch municipal tax departments between 2005 and 2012. Motivated by the notion that cost savings are ascribed to scale economies, the relation between cooperation and cost is modelled explicitly through scale. The size of the cooperation is incorporated as a determinant of cost efficiency. The results indicate that inter-municipal cooperation can contribute to reducing cost and that the relation can be explained by scale. Municipalities or cooperations sized around 10,000 inhabitants are estimated up to 30% inefficient. At 60,000 inhabitants, the benefits of scaling are largely exhausted. Other than through scale, municipalities that cooperate are not estimated to operate significantly more or less efficient.     

THE (DE)CONSTRUCTION OF CONFLICT IN DIVORCE LITIGATION: A DISCURSIVE CRITIQUE OF “PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME” AND “THE ALIENATED CHILD”

In high‐conflict divorce litigation involving custody and access, mental‐health professionals are often used to assess the case and make recommendations. Using Foucauldian theories of discourse, this article suggests that these assessments, which are intended to resolve the conflict or offer profitable information, often participate in the conflict by constructing assessments and diagnoses that fit with legal discourse, and thus with the outcomes of adversarial‐styled rulings and ideologically driven interests. This article suggests that so long as such professionals are driven by the privileged discourse of law and psychology/psychiatry, the best interests of those at the center of the conflict can have their experience co‐opted by the iatrogenic features of these discourses.     

Legal Issues and Human Rights Dimensions of the Israeli Settlements Issue: Victims and Spoilers

The presenters on this panel discussed several important additional requirements for the successful implementation of a two-state solution that involves significant relocation of settlers. These requirements include balancing rights among different groups, minimizing the impact of "spoilers," and providing political compensation to settlers. Presenters also highlighted the relevance of elements of classic negotiation theory to this issue, including thinking creatively about substance and paying appropriate attention to process.