Two Cheers for Paperwork: The Value and Burden of Federal Reporting

In principle, reporting by state and local governments to thefederal government is essential to the design and implementationof national policy. In practice, reporting often engenders resentmentof federal intrusion and is often dismissed as a waste of stateand local resources. Is reporting useless? Does it strengthenthe federal government at the expense of state and local governments?We asked federal, state, local, and site officials about thevalue and burden of five specific reporting systems in elementaryand secondary education. Common assumptions about reportingdid not correspond to respondent reactions. Both value and burdencascade through the intergovernmental system, reaching policymakersin all governments. Although critics seldom discriminate betweentypes of reporting, we found that reporting designed to improvecompliance with federal standards evoked different judgmentsof value and burden than reporting designed for assistance.These results suggest some new approaches to federal policygoverning the collection of information and to the design ofindividual reporting systems.     

Local Government Procurement of CPA Audit Services: The Role of the States

Recent studies have raised serious concerns about the quality of governmental audits by independent CPAs. Part of the problem is that many governmental units do not use effective audit procurement procedures. This article examines current state guidelines for the procurement of CPA audit services by local governments and recommends an expansion of the states' role in this area.     

Whose wants in ‘needs-based planning’? Some examples of unwritten agendas from the provincial integrated rural development programmes of Papua New Guinea

The rhetoric of ‘needs’-based planning requires little refining. What must be questioned and recognized are the values of decision makers and the unwritten agendas of those involved in the planning process. Taking the example of some of the integrated rural development programmes (IRDPs) in Papua New Guinea, this paper looks at the way planners and others cast development and information ‘nets’. These nets abrogate indigenous development processes. The ‘nets’ make it easy for development professionals and others involved in planning to follow unwritten agendas and difficult for target groups to articulate their ‘needs’ and to understand what is going on. It is suggested that these problems are not unique to PNG and may well be relevant to ‘needs based planning’ in other situations.     

B. Reviews: general

AN INTRODUCTION TO ISLAM. By GERHARD ENDRESS. Translated by CAROLE HILLENBRAND. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1988. ix + 293pp. H/B £29.95, P/B £9.50.

A HISTORY OF ISLAMIC SOCIETIES. By IRA M. LAPIDUS. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988. 1002pp. £35.00.

THE GREAT POWERS AND THE MIDDLE EAST 1919–1939. Edited by URIEL DANN. (Collected Papers Series of the Dayan Centre for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University.) New York and London, Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., Africana Publishing Company, 1988. 434pp. $59.50 cloth.

THE RENTIER STATE. Edited by HAZEM BEBLAWI and GIACOMO LUCIANI. London, Croom Helm for Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome, 1987. 240pp.

DEVELOPMENT, ADMINISTRATION AND AID IN THE MIDDLE EAST. By GERD NONNEMAN. London and New York, Routledge, 1988. 203pp. Figures, tables. £25.00.

DOMESTIC POLITICS AND REGIONAL SECURITY: JORDAN, SYRIA AND ISRAEL. THE END OF AN ERA? By VALERIE YORKE. Aldershot, Brookfield ISA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Gower. 1988. Published for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. 432pp. £35.00

THE BIRTH OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEE PROBLEM. By B. MORRIS. Cambridge, Cambridge U.P., 1988. 400pp. £30.00.

ETHNIZITÄT UND MACHTKONKURRENZ IN INTER‐ARABISCHEN BEZIEHUNGEN: DER SYRISCH‐IRAKISCHE KONFLIKT UNTER DEN BA'ATH‐REGIMEN. By EBERHARD KIENLE. Berlin, Verlag Das Arabische Buch, 1988. 63pp.

THE SHATT‐AL‐ARAB BOUNDARY QUESTION: A LEGAL REAPPRAISAL. By KAIYIN HOMA KAIKOBAD. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988. xix, 142pp. 10 maps and figures, table of legal cases. £25.00.

IRAN AND IRAQ AT WAR. By S. CHUBIN and C. TRIPP. London, I.B. Tauris, 1988. 328pp. £19.50.

THE ARAB GULF AND THE ARAB WORLD. Edited by BRIAN R. PRIDHAM. London, Croom Helm, 1988. xv, 302pp. £35.00.

THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL: RECORD AND ANALYSIS. By R.K. RAMAZANI. Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 1988. 256pp. $45.00.

SAUDI ARABIA IN THE OIL ERA—REGIME AND ELITES: CONFLICT AND COLLABORATION. By MORDECHAI ABIR. London, Croom Helm, 1988. xix, 247pp. £25.00.

THE IMAMATE TRADITION OF OMAN. By J.C. WILKINSON. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987. xii, 415pp. £40.00.

MUSADDIQ, IRANIAN NATIONALISM AND OIL. Edited by JAMES A. BILL and ROGER LOUIS. Austin, University of Texas Press & London, Tauris, 1988. 358pp.

STATE, DEMOCRACY AND THE MILITARY: TURKEY IN THE 1980s. Edited by METIN HEPER and AHMET EVIN. Berlin and New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1988. 265pp.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE: THE ENLIGHTENED THINKERS AND AN ISLAMIC RENAISSANCE. By ALI SHARI'ATI. Edited and annotated by FARHANG RAJAEE; Foreword by JOHN L. ESPOSITO. Houston, Texas, Institute for Research and Islamic Studies, 1986. xix, 181pp. $25.95 (hardback), $11.95 (paperback).

THE QUR'AN IN ISLAM: ITS IMPACT AND INFLUENCE ON THE LIFE OF MUSLIMS. By ‘ALLAMAH SAYYID M.H. TABATABA'I. Translated by ASSADULLAH AD‐DHAAKIR YATE; Foreword by SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR. London and Blanco, Texas, Zahra Publications, 1987. 118pp. $14.95.

ISLAMIC SPIRITUALITY: 1. FOUNDATIONS. Edited by SEYYED HOSSEIN NASR. (World Spirituality; an Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, vol. 19.) London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987. xxix, 450pp. 35 monochrome illustrations. £39.50.

THE MANTLE OF THE PROPHET: RELIGION AND POLITICS IN IRAN. By ROY MOTTAHEDEH. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Peregrine Books, 1987. 418pp. £6.95.

EL PALACIO OMEYA DE AMMAN I. LA ARQUITECTURA. By ANTONIO ALMAGRO GORBEA. Madrid, Instituto Hispano‐Arabe de Cultura, 1983. 207pp., including an English and an Arabic summary (30pp., unnumbered), 63 plates, 52 figures, 39 loose‐leaf drawings.     

Differentiating specialists and generalists within college students' social support networks

In order to examine the relationships among social network structure, types of social support, and determinants of support satisfaction, an alternative method was used to score the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ). Factor analysis procedures suggested that college students' (N=198) social networks consisted of four groups: nuclear family, other family, friends, and others. Satisfaction with support was positively related to the proportion of the network occupied by nuclear family and negatively related to the proportion of friends in the network. Evidence was found for the presence of both support specialists and support generalists in the networks of the college students. These results are discussed from a developmental perspective with attention to the implications for interventions.     

The nuclear family: Correspondence in cognitive and affective reactions to the threat of nuclear war among older adolescents and their parents

In order to assess the relationship between family members' cognitive and affective responses to nuclear war issues, 317 college students and their parents (n=559) independently completed a multifaceted questionnaire that included items concerning personal reactions, predictions, opinions, and attitudes about nuclear war. Results revealed a negligible relationship between the responses of college students and their parents, although the level of concordance between mothers and fathers was somewhat greater. Moreover, parents and students were relatively poor at predicting each others' nuclear threat attitudes, and the strength with which an attitude was endorsed did not enhance its predictability. Results are discussed with regard to heterogeneity in attitudinal and affective reactions within families, and with regard to the idea that infrequent communication concerning nuclear war issues may be occurring.Portions of this article were presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles, California, August 25, 1985.Interested in clinical and counseling psychology, the psychological effects of the threat of nuclear war, and parent training.Interested in counseling psychology, nuclear war issues, and the concept-specific measurement of emotionality.Interested in counseling psychology, nuclear war issues, and factors influencing custody decisions.     

Relationship of life events and social support with psychological dysfunction among adolescents

Relationships among major life events, perceived social support, and psychological disorder were assessed in a sample of older adolescents. Negative life events and satisfaction with social support were significantly and independently related to a range of psychological symptoms. Further, the relationship between negative events and disorder was moderated by gender, the types of events experienced, and anticipated change in the psychosocial environment. The importance of the use of standardized and psychometrically sound measures of life events, social support, and psychological disorder is highlighted.Received his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1980. An assistant professor, he is currently investigating stress and coping among children and adolescents.Received her Ph.D. from the University of Vermont in 1985. An assistant professor, she is currently studying social support.Received Ed. M. from Harvard Universtiy. He is a doctoral student in clinical psychology interested in the role of social support in coping with stress during adolescence.Received her BA from the University of Vermont. She is a doctoral student in clinical psychology.     

Competitive bidding and states' purchase of services: the case of mental health care in Massachusetts.

Over the past two decades states have significantly increased their use of competitive bidding to purchase health and social services from private agencies. Competitive contracting is thought to facilitate program administration, to reduce costs, and to increase the quality of delivered services. We evaluate these claims in light of Massachusetts' experience with competitive contracting for mental health care. We find that few of the expected benefits are achieved. In practice, supposedly competitive bidding systems often degenerate into administratively complicated negotiations between the state and private monopolies. This results in higher costs and lower quality of services. In light of this negative assessment, three strategies for reform are proposed and evaluated.     

Garcia: Of Federalism and Constitutional Values

In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985),a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court's justices did violenceto the principles of the U.S. Constitution by leaving the statesto take their Tenth Amendment complaints to the Congress. Inabdicating their proper constitutional role, the majority ofjustices ignored history, political realities, and constitutionalprinciple. The Constitution's institutional arrangements, ofwhich federalism is a key component, are an intrinsic part ofthe constitutional scheme by which government power is limitedand individual rights are protected.