Book reviews

Stephen Chan and Andrew J. Williams (eds), Renegade states: The Evolution of Revolutionary Foreign Policy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994).

Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury (eds), United Nations, Divided World. The UN's Role in International Relations 2nd edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993)

G. Hastedt and K. Knickrehm, (eds), Toward the Twenty‐first Century. A Reader in World Politics (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994).

A. J.R. Groom and Margot Light (eds), Contemporary International Relations: A Guide to Theory (London: Pinter Publishers, 1994).     

The MacArthur Treatment Competence Study. II

This article reports the development and psychometric properties of three standardized and objectively scored measures, the MacArthur Treatment Competence Research Instruments. They were designed to assess abilities related conceptually to four legal standards for competence to consent to treatment: understanding, appreciation, rational manipulation (reasoning), and expressing a choice. Scoring reliability, internal consistency, intertest correlations, and test-retest correlations were examined with data from samples of hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, major depression, and ischemic heart disease, as well as matched non-ill community samples. The results indicate very good interscorer reliability and provide guidance for the use of the instruments and interpretation of their results in future research on patients' decisional abilities in treatment contexts.     

Ethos,ideology, and partisanship: Exploring the paradox of conservative democrats

Despite the increasingly liberal cast of the national Democratic Party, self-identified conservatives continue to represent a significant segment of the party. At least 25 percent of Democratic identifiers considered themselves to be conservatives during the 1972–1988 period. This paper explores the puzzle of why significant numbers of political conservatives continue to identify with the Democratic Party. We argue that conservative Democrats relate to their party not because of political ideology, as do Republicans and to a lesser extent, liberal/moderate Democrats, but because of the symbolic values associated with the main groups in the party—what we refer to as party ethos. This proposition is examined by analyzing a new set of open-ended questions included in the 1988 American National Election Study probing citizens' images and assessments of the Republican and Democratic parties.The data utilized in this paper were made available by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data forAmerican National Election Study 1988: Pre- and Post-Election Survey were originally collected by Warren E. Miller and the National Election Studies. Neither the collector of the original data nor the Consortium bears any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.     

Reviews

Chris Beasley, Sexual Economyths: Conceiving a Feminist Economics (Allen and Unwin) Sydney, 1994.

Jo Bridgeman and Susan Millns (eds), Law and Body Politics—Regulating the Female Body (Dartmouth) Aldershot, 1995.

Rosalyn Diprose, The Bodies of Women: Ethics, Embodiment and Sexual Difference (Routledge) London and New York, 1994.

Moira Gatens, Imaginary Bodies (Routledge) London & New York, 1996.

Elizabeth Grosz, Space, Time and Perversion: The Politics of Bodies (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, 1995.

Karen Green, The Woman of Reason: Feminism, Humanism and Political Thought (Polity Press) Cambridge, 1995.

Laura E. Donaldson, Decolonizing Feminisms: Race, Gender and Empire‐Building (Routledge) London, 1992.

Maggie Humm, A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Feminist Literary Criticism (Harvester Wheatsheaf) London, 1994.

Maggie Humm, Practising Feminist Criticism: An Introduction (Harvester Wheatsheaf) London, 1995.

Jane Balme and Wendy Beck (eds), Gendered Archaeology: The Second Australian Women in Archaeology Conference, Research Papers in Archaeology and Natural History, No. 26 (ANH Publications, RSPAS, Australian National University) Canberra, 1995.

Patricia Ann Palmieri, In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley (Yale University Press) New Haven & London, 1995.

Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin (eds) Feminist Organizations: Harvest Of The New Women's Movement (Temple University Press) Philadelphia, 1995.

Liane V. Davis, Building on Women's Strengths (Haworth Press) New York, 1994.

Dorothy Broom (ed.), Double Bind: Women Affected by Alcohol and Other Drugs (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, 1994.     

Does management by objectives stifle organizational innovation in the public sector?

Abstract. Does management by objectives stifle organizational innovation in the public sector? The authors explore this possibility by describing five common characteristics of mbo and then contrasting them with four characteristics of innovative organizations. The comparison suggests that mbo -pressures lead to organizational stress that is often resolved by the creation of two working environments; one for the pursuit of innovative objectives, and one for the pursuit of regular objectives. This could lead to dysfunctionalism in the form of abandoned objectives-objectives that might have been achieved if mbo were not used. The authors conclude with four implications for public-sector managers: (1) the practice of including innovation objectives along with traditional objectives in the same set of objectives is questionable; (2) broader objectives, perhaps pointing in the general direction of the innovations sought, might be more productive in some cases than specific objectives; (3) possible incompatibility between mbo and innovation might be lessened if innovative ventures are pursued in ad hoc organizational structures; and (4) management by objectives and innovation are not necessarily compatible.     

The Reinvention of Public Personnel Administration: An Analysis of the Diffusion of Personnel Management Reforms in the States

Reform is a common theme in American public administration. During the twentieth century at least 12 major administrative reforms have taken place at the federal level and countless others in state and local governments. Frequently, these reforms have addressed the operation of public personnel management systems. Recent efforts associated with the reinventing government movement, for example, have proposed numerous alterations to civil service rules and procedures, and many jurisdictions have implemented significant changes in their personnel practices. This article examines the extent to which these kinds of personnel reforms have been implemented by state governments. A reform index is developed to document the considerable variation among the states in their approach to personnel practices. Several state characteristics are associated with scores on this index, including legislative professionalism, which bears a positive relationship to reform, and the level of unemployment within a state and the proportion of state employees associated with public employee unions, which are both negatively associated with reform.     

Budgetary Decision Making by Executive and Legislative Budget Analysts: The Impact of Political Cues and Analytical Information

We explore the extent to which attributes of individual analysts and institutional factors lead to budgetary decisions based on political cues and/or analytical information among executive and legislative budget analysts. We surveyed executive and legislative budget analysts in 13 western states to ascertain the factors that influence their budgetary decisions. The findings build on evidence from previous studies that confirms the complexity of factors affecting budget analysts' decisions, and they provide empirical support to analysts' use of a combination of information labeled "budget rationality" by Thurmaier and Willoughby. Also, we provide more conclusive evidence that both executive and legislative analysts follow similar decision-making patterns.