Reviews

AIDS in Africa: The Social and Policy Impact edited by Norman Miller and Richard C. Rockwell Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston (New York) and Queenston (Ontario), 1988. xxxi plus 336 pp. including map, tables, figures, notes, appendices and selected bibliographies. $110,00.

The Politics of Africa's Economic Stagnation by Richard Sandbrook Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985. xiii plus 180 pp. including map, tables, notes and index. R.25,50 paperback.

Imperialism and Dependency: Obstacles to African Development by Daniel A. Offiong Howard University Press, Washington, DC, 1982. 304 pp. including tables, bibliography and index. $6,95 paperback.

Early Field Recordings: A Catalogue of Cylinder Collections at the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music edited by Anthony Seeger and Louise S. Spear Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1987. xviii plus 198 pp. $22,50.

Western Sahara: The Roots of a Desert War by Tony Hodges Lawrence Hill and Co., Westport (Connecticut), 1983. xii plus 388 pp. including maps, illustrations, tables, notes, appendix, bibliography and index. £6,95 paperback.

Somalia: Nation in Search of a State by David D. Laitin and Said S. Samatar Westview Press, Boulder (Colorado), and Gower, London, 1987. xvii plus 198 pp. including maps, illustrations, figures, tables, notes and index. $28,00.

Superpower Diplomacy in the Horn of Africa by Samuel M. Makinda Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1987. 242 pp. including notes, appendices, select bibliography and index. £22,50.

Industrialization in West Africa by J.O.C. Onyemelukwe Croom Helm, London, 1984. v plus 226 pp. including tables, figures, bibliography and index. £17,95.

Modern Kongo Prophets: Religion in a Plural Society by Wyatt MacGaffey Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1983. xiii plus 285 pp. including tables, figures, illustrations, notes, references and index. $12,00 paperback.

Naissance du Mozambique: Résistance et Révoltes Anticoloniales, 1854–1918 (Two Volumes) by René Pélissier Editions Pélissier, Orgeval (France), 1984. 833 pp. including maps, tables, notes, bibliography and index. $45,00 paperback.

The Political Economy of Namibia: An Annotated, Critical Bibliography by Tore LinnÉ Eriksen with Richard Moorsom Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, 1985. 423 pp. including map and authors’ index. SEK 110.

The Bureaucratic Struggle for Control of US Foreign Aid: Diplomacy versus Development in Southern Africa by Caleb Rossiter Bowker Publishing Co., Epping (England), and Westview Press, Boulder (Colorado), 1985. xiii plus 250 pp. including figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index. $25,50 paperback.

The Politics of Economic Power in Southern Africa by Ronald T. Libby Princeton University Press, Princeton (New Jersey), 1987. xxiii plus 361 pp. including maps, tables, bibliography and index. $45,00. $14,50 paperback.

South Africa in Crisis edited by Jesmond Blumenfeld Croom Helm, London, 1987. x plus 207 pp. including tables, notes and index. £19,95.

Pass Controls and the Urban African Proletariat in South Africa By Doug Hindson Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1987. xii plus 121 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. R 14,00 paperback.

Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa: Politics and Popular Movements in the Transkei and Eastern Cape, 1890–1930 by William Beinart and Colin Bundy Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1987. xxvi plus 326 pp. including illustrations, maps, notes and index. R24,00 paperback.     

The Downstream Benefits of Experimentation

The debate about the cost-effectiveness of randomized fieldexperimentation ignores one of the most important potentialuses of experimental data. This article defines and illustrates"downstream" experimental analysis—that is, analysis ofthe indirect effects of experimental interventions. We arguethat downstream analysis may be as valuable as conventionalanalysis, perhaps even more so in the case of laboratory experimentation.     

Compositional variation in bullet lead manufacture

The concentrations of antimony, copper, tin, arsenic, silver, bismuth, and cadmium in lead alloys produced by two smelters and one ammunition manufacturer were determined using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. These element concentrations were used to measure the variations in composition of lead products that result from various processes involved in the manufacture of lead projectiles. In general, when a pot containing molten lead is used to cast a number of objects, these objects are similar, although not necessarily analytically indistinguishable in their elemental compositions. In each subsequent step in the processing of lead at the smelter and at the ammunition manufacturer, the size of an individual homogeneous melt of lead decreases as more distinct compositions are formed as a result of remelting and mixing of sources, including lead scrap. The ammunition manufacturer in this study produced at least 10 compositionally distinguishable groups of bullet wire in a 19.7-h period. The largest group could potentially be used to produce a maximum of 1.3 million compositionally indistinguishable 40 grain bullets.     

Driver and front seat passenger fatalities associated with air bag deployment. Part 2: A review of injury patterns and investigative issues

Assessment of the role of air bag deployment in injury causation in a crash of any severity requires analysis of occupant, vehicle, and impact data. The potential injurious role of an air bag is independent of crash severity and is more obvious in minor collisions, particularly those involving "out-of-position" occupants. Factors such as occupant height and other constitutional and medical factors, intoxication, age, type, and proper use of other restraint systems, pre-impact braking and multiple impacts can contribute to an occupant being "out-of-position." Two injury mechanisms are described in out-of-position occupants: "punch-out" when the individual covers the air bag module before deployment and "membrane-force" when the occupant contacts a partly deployed air bag. Each mechanism is associated with injury patterns. In adults, "punch-out" can cause thoraco-abdominal trauma and "membrane-force" loading can lead to craniocervical injury. This can also occur in short-statured occupants including children subjected to both types of loading. In more severe collisions, other factors, e.g., intrusion, steering column and seatbelt loading and other occupant compartment contacts, can contribute to trauma.     

Designing a merit‐based process for appointing boards of abcs: Lessons from the Nova Scotia reform experience

Abstract: Efforts to design merit‐based appointment systems for the boards of government agencies, boards and commissions (abcs) have gained greater priority over the past decade in order to enhance public confidence in the integrity of the political process, improve the governance of organizations operating at arm's length from ministers, and reduce the risks to the public interest and public purse that come with incompetent boards. The Nova Scotia reform experience in this regard is instructive because this province's appointment regime not only encompasses a legislative committee veto over ministerial appointments, a power unique to this province in the Canadian and comparative Westminster systems, but also uniquely sets the merit standard as relative‐merit, that is, the appointment of the most qualified of all applicants, and not merely a qualified candidate. This article reviews this provincial experience and concludes that a merit‐based appointment system that pursues relative merit can be created but only by restricting the authority of ministers to a veto over the appointment of candidates nominated by the abcs themselves. Sommaire: Ces dix demières années, les efforts déployés pour concevoir des systemes de nomination au mérite pour les conseils d'administration d'organismes, des régies et des commissions du gouvernement ont obtenu une priorité beaucoup plus grande, et cela, afin de rehausser la confiance du public envers I'intégrite du processus politique, d'ameliorer la gouvernance d'organismes fonctionnant sans contrôle ministériel direct et de réduire les risques que représentent les conseils incompétents pour le bien et les deniers publics. L'expérience de la réforme entreprise en NouvelleÉcosse est à cet égard instructive pour les partisans de la réforme. Le régime de nomination de cette province comporte non seulement un droit de veto de la part d'un comité législatif sur les nominations ministéielles, pouvoir unique à cette province dans le systéme canadien et le systéme comparatif de Westminster, mais il établit également la norme de mérite comme un mérite relatif, c'est‐à‐dire la nomination de la personne la mieux qualifiée parmi tous les candidats et non simplement la nomination d'une personne qualifiée. Le présent article examine I'expérience de cette province et conclut qu'un système de nomination au mérite visant le mérite relatif peut être mis en place, mais seulernent à condition de limiter le pouvoir des ministres à opposer leur veto à la nomination de candidats par les organismes, régies et commissions gouvernementaux.