Costs and benefits through bureaucratic lenses: Example of a highway project

This article characterizes the perceptions of government bureaucrats about cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The observations arise after working with government officials on various projects and leading many executive seminars for government employees over the last decade on the principles and practice of CBA. Government employees tend to adopt one of three conceptual lenses: Guardians, Spenders, and Analysts. These perspectives differ sharply from one another, resulting in completely different meanings to the words benefits and costs. The orientation of Guardians is to “revenue-expenditure” analysis, while Spenders are oriented to “constituency-support” analysis. Analysts are oriented to standard CBA. The differences in perspectives are illustrated using an ex ante CBA of a proposed toll highway project.     

Reviews

Joseph L. Nogee and Robert H. Donaldson, Soviel Foreign Policy Since World War II. New York: Pergamon Press, 1981. viii + 320 pp. Flexicover, £5.45.

Robert H. Donaldson (ed.), The Soviet Union in the Third World: Successes and Failures. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press / London: Croom Helm, 1981. xiv + 458 pp. Hardcover, $25.00.

Karen Dawisha and Philip Hanson (eds.), Soviet—East European Dilemmas: Coercion, Competition, and Consent. London: Heinemann for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1981. xiv + 226 pp. Paper, £5.95.

Jerry F. Hough, Soviet Leadership in Transition. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1980. viii + 175 pp. $11.95 and $4.95.

Sheila Fitzpatrick, Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union 1921–1934. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. x + 355 pp. £15.50.

Jan Ake Dellenbrant, Soviet Regional Policy: A Quantitative Inquiry into the Social and Political Development of the Soviet Republics. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1980. 192 pp. Sw. kr. 105.—

Maria Hirszowicz, The Bureaucratic Leviathan: A Study in the Sociology of Communism. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980. x + 208 pp. £12.50.

Theodore H. Friedgut, Political Participation in the USSR. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1979. xvi + 353 pp. £11.70.

Ronald J. Hill, Soviet Politics, Political Science and Reform. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980. x + 221 pp. Hardcover. £12.00.

Daniel N. Nelson, Democratic Centralism in Romania: A Study of Local Communist Politics. Boulder: East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, New York 1980. xii + 186 pp. $19.50.

Timothy Dunmore, The Stalinist Command Economy: The Soviet State Apparatus and Economic Policy 1945–53. London: Macmillan, 1980. xii + 176 pp. £20.00.

Paul Marrer and John Michael Montias (eds.), East European Integration and East‐West Trade. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. vi+432 pp. US, Canada $32.50, UK £19.50, Elsewhere $40.63.

Christoph Bertram (ed.), Prospects of Soviet Power in the 1980s. London: Macmillan in association with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1980. 126 pp. £15.00.

Jiri Valenta, Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968: Anatomy of a Decision. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. xii + 208 pp. £7.75.

R. Selucky, Marx, socialism and freedom. London: Macmillan, 1979. 237 pp. £12.00.

Mihaly Vajda, The State and Socialism. London: Allison and Busby, 1981. 150 pp. £9.95 and £4.50.

Elizabeth Pond, Russia Perceived. A Trans‐Siberian Journey. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1981. 296 pp. £9.95.

Philip T. Grier, Marxist Ethical Theory in the Soviet Union. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1978. xvii + 276 pp. No price.

Edward M. Swiderski, The Philosophical Foundations of Soviet Aesthetics: Theories and Controversies in the Post‐War Years. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979. xviii + 225 pp. DM.65, US $34.00.

Edward Braun, The Theatre of Meyerhold: Revolution on the Modern Stage. London: Eyre Methuen, 1979. 299 pp. £9.95.     

After decolonization: Australia and the emergence of the non‐aligned movement in Asia, 1954–55

This article is a study of the response of the Australian government under Robert Menzies to the emergence of the Afro‐Asian movement in the mid‐1950s, especially the element of the non‐aligned nations, which culminated in the Bandung meeting of April 1955. Non‐alignment and anti‐colonialism posed direct threats to the Menzies government's plans for the defence of Southeast Asia and its foreign policy for the region. The study of the Australian response to the Bandung meeting reveals the different legacies which European imperialism left behind in Australia compared with its neighbours in south and east Asia.     

Deregulation, Competitive Pressures and the Emergence of Intermodalism

Deregulation has dramatically altered the face of Australian industry and associated services throughout the last decade or so. In the transport sector, in particular, changes have been significant and deregulation has led to pervasive changes in market structure, to the actual ownership of infrastructure and to a shift in strategic focus from a public utility to one of commercial viability and market orientation. Competitive pressures in the transport sector as a result of deregulation have meant that traditional public sector organisations such as railways and ports have been transformed. A major impact of these developments has been that transport operators, in an endeavour either to maintain or capture market share, have been forced to restructure and refocus and, in the face of growing competition, have been forced to reinvent themselves and move increasingly towards the provision of an integrated intermodal service. Rail operators are now no longer simple linehaul operators in container or bulk freight markets but have become market–focused third–party service providers of a range of integrated functions.     

The theory of economic regulation and public choice and the determinants of public sector bargaining legislation

In this study we used the theory of economic regulation and public choice to derive a model to explain the pattern of public sector bargaining laws among the states. We find this type of legislation is influenced by the following demand factors: (1) the extent of public sector union membership, which represents the interest group hypothesis, has a positive influence on pro-union legislation; (2) the extent of employer opposition to unions, as measured by unfair labor practice charges against employers in representation elections, has a negative effect on bargaining laws; (3) two taste variables — the salaries of public employees and the percent of nonwhite employment in the state — have a positive influence on these laws. A result which will be surprising to many people is that the extent of private sector union membership has no significant influence on the passage of public sector bargaining legislation.Our empirical analysis indicates that supply factors are also important in explaining the pattern of public employee bargaining laws across the state. We find that states are more likely to enact pro-union legislation under the following conditions: (1) constituents appear to hold pro-labor views as represented by their Congressmen's voting record; (2) neighboring states have passed mandatory bargaining laws; and (3) when competition is greater among the political parties.