Welfare Reform, Mississippi Style: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Search for Accountability

Through an examination of the implementation of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act in the state of Mississippi, we explore the adequacy of traditional two-actor principal-agent theory. Using this as our lens, we suggest that the choices made by Mississippi in the area of welfare reform to privatize much of the work and to add several layers to the existing principal-agent relationship substantially reduced accountability and the effectiveness of the monitoring systems. We conclude that not only is traditional principal-agent theory an insufficient tool for understanding the complex interrelationship between democratic actors in this particular case, the decisions of the state of Mississippi to complicate the principal-actor relationship through privatization also undermined the reform effort itself in ways that may have general implications for other like-minded efforts in other policy areas.
There are those who are undermining what we are trying to achieve ...
—Bud Henry, Director of Economic Assistance, Mississippi Department of Human Services     

Book reviews

Bo Yibo, Ruogan Zhongda Juece yu Shijian de Huigu (Reminiscences on Several Important Decisions and Events), Volume Two. Zhonggong Zhongyang Dangxiao Chubanshe, 1993. 567–1298 pp.

Li Honglin, Mingyun ‐ Li Honglin zizhuan (Fate ‐ the autobiography of Li Honglin) Taibei: Wentong tushu, 1993.

Jing Sheng, Yi Feng and Xin Ping, Haiwai Huaren Shiuejia Fajia Mijue (The Success Secrects of the Overseas Chinese Businessman) Shenyang: Liaoning People's Publishing House, 1992, 266 pages.

Li Bulou, ed. Chongji yu sikao: Xifang sichao zai Zhongguo (Impact and Reflections: Western Ideologies in China). Wuhan: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1991. 290 + 16 pp.

Jia Pingwa, Feidu [Ruined Capital]. Beijing, Beijing chuban she. 1993, p.518.     

Book reviews

Chen Kuide, ed., Zhongguo dalu dangdai wenhua bianqian (197801989) (Cultural change in Contemporary Mainland China, 1978–1989) Taibei: Guiguan, 1991. 278 + iv pp.

Yizi Chen. China: the Ten Years Reform and Democratic Movement in 1989. Pp. ix, 209, Taipei, Taiwan, Lianjing Press, 1990.

Wu Xiaomei et al., Zhongguo xiandai zuojia yu dongxifang wenhua [Modern Chinese Writers and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou: Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 272 pp. 2.12 Yuan.

Zhao Xueyong, Shen Congwen yu dongxifang wenhua [Shen Congwen and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 226 pp. 1.75 yuan.

Zhongguo Waijiaoguan Huiylilu: Xin Zhongguo Waijiao Fengyun (Memoirs by China's Diplomats: Diplomatic Winds of New China). Edited by Waijiaobu Waijiaoshi Bianjishi (Editorial Office of Diplomatic History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Beijing: Shijie Zhishi chubanshe, 1990. 196 pp. 3.20 yuan

Zhao Wei, Zhao Ziyang zhuan (Biography of Zhao Ziyang)

Ruan Ming: Lishi Zhuanzedian Shangde Hu Yaobang (Hu Yaobang At the Turning Point of History), New Jersey: Global Cultural Publishing House, 1991     

Book reviews

Tibor Szamuely, The Russian Tradition. (Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Conquest.) London: Secker & Warburg, 1974. x+443 pp. £5.00.

Mahmoud Abdel‐Fadil, La Planification des prix en économie socialiste, Essai méthodologique. (Préface de Henri Bartoli.) Série: Sciences Economiques —3. Paris: Publications de l'Université de Paris I—Panthéon‐Sorbonne, 1975. 296 pp.

Jan Adam, Wage, Price and Taxation Policy in Czechoslovakia 1948–1970. Veröffentlichungen des Osteuropa‐Institutes, München. Reihe: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Heft 15. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1974. 231 pp. DM 66.60.

Stephen Osofsky, Soviet Agricultural Policy. Toward the Abolition of Collective Farms. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York: Praeger, 1974. xi+300 pp. $20.00.

Peter J. Potichnyj, Soviet Agricultural Trade Unions, 1917–70. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and London: OUP, 1972. xix+258 pp. £6.25.

Roy A. Medvedev, On Socialist Democracy. (Translated from the Russian and edited by Ellen de Kadt.) London: Macmillan, 1975. xxii+405 +xv pp. £12.00.

The Bolsheviks and the October Revolution. Minutes of the Central Committee of the Russian Social‐Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks) August 1917‐February 1918. Translated from the Russian by Ann Bone. London: Pluto Press, 1974. x+331 pp. £6.60. £2.70 (paperback).

G. I. Tunkin, Theory of International Law. Translated, with an introduction, by William E. Butler. London: Allen & Unwin, 1975. First published in Great Britain in 1974. xxv+497 pp. £8.00.

Bohdan R. Bociurkiw and John W. Strong (eds.), Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan, 1975. xviii+412 pp. £10.00.

R. S. Mathieson, The Soviet Union: An Economic Geography. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1975. xvii+342 pp. £7.50.

Violet Conolly, Siberia Today and Tomorrow. A Study of Economic Resources, Problems and Achievements. London and Glasgow: Collins, 1975. 248 pp. £4–95.

Burton Paulu, Radio and Television Broadcasting in Eastern Europe. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP and London: OUP, 1974. xi+592 pp. £13.25.

John McLeish, Soviet Psychology: History, Theory, Content. London: Methuen, 1975. xii+308 pp. £6.95.

Robin Edmonds, Soviet Foreign Policy 1962–1973: The Paradox of Super Power. London: OUP, 1975. xiv+197 pp. £4.50.

Michael MccGwire, Ken Booth and John McDonnell (eds.), Soviet Naval Policy. Objectives and Constraints. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall Press, 1975. xxvi+663 pp. $32.50. £14.25.

Jerome M. Gilison, The Soviet Image of Utopia. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1975. 192 pp. £4.85.

Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky. London: Wildwood House, 1975. 296 pp. £6.95.     

Book reviews

R. Bahro: Die Alternative. Koln‐Frankfurt, 1977, 542 pp. 34.00DM.

R. Bahro: The alternative in Eastern Europe, New Left Books, 1978. 463 pp. £9.50.

Bergson, Abram, Productivity and the Social System—The USSR and the West, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978. xi+256 pp. £12.25.

Alec Nove; Political Economy and Soviet Socialism, London, Boston, Sydney: George Allen & Unwin, 1979. 249 pp. £10.00.

Gail Warshofsky Lapidus, Women in Soviet Society: Equality, Development and Social Change. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1978. x + 381 pp. £12.25.

Nationalism in the USSR & Eastern Europe in the Era of Brezhnev and Kosygin. Papers and Proceedings of the Symposium held at University of Detroit on 3–4 October, 1975. Edited by George W. Simmonds. Detroit, Mich.: University of Detroit Press, 1977. 534 pp. $6.95 soft bound, $12.00 hard bound.

Alexander Yanov, The Russian New Right: Right‐ Wing Ideologies in the Contemporary USSR. Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1978. 185 pp. $3.95.

John J. Stephan, The Russian Fascists: Tragedy and Farce in Exile, 1925–1945. New York: Harper and Row, 1978. 450 pp. $15.00.

Michael A. Newcity, Copyright Law in the Soviet Union. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1978. x + 212 pp. Appendix and selected bibliography.

Robin Higham and Jacob W. Kipp, Soviet Aviation and Air Power. A Historical View. London: Brasseys’, 1978; Boulder Co.: Westview Press, 1977. xii + 328 pp. $25.

James Riordan (ed.), Sport Under Communism. London: C. Hurst & Company, 1978. x +177 pp. £6.95.

Vahan D. Barooshian, Brik and Mayakovsky, Slavistic Printings and Reprintings 301. The Hague: Mouton, 1978. 154 pp. + index. Paperback.

Vladimir FiSera (ed.), Workers’ Councils in Czechoslovakia: Documents and Essays 1968–69. London: Motive, 1978. 200 pp. £8.50.

Richard F. Starr (ed.), Yearbook on International Communist Affairs 1978, Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University, 1978. 497 pp. $35.00.

G. E. Skorov (ed.), Science, Technology and Economic Growth in Developing Countries. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1978. (tranlated by J. Warren).