Do experimental and nonexperimental evaluations give different answers about the effectiveness of government‐funded training programs?

This paper uses meta‐analysis to investigate whether random assignment (or experimental) evaluations of voluntary government‐funded training programs for the disadvantaged have produced different conclusions than nonexperimental evaluations. Information includes several hundred estimates from 31 evaluations of 15 programs that operated between 1964 and 1998. The results suggest that experimental and nonexperimental evaluations yield similar conclusions about the effectiveness of training programs, but that estimates of average effects for youth and possibly men might have been larger in experimental studies. The results also suggest that variation among nonexprimental estimates of program effects is similar to variation among experimental estimates for men and youth, but not for women (for whom it seems to be larger), although small sample sizes make the estimated differences somewhat imprecise for all three groups. The policy implications of the findings are discussed. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management     

Spaces of disappearance: aesthetic responses to contemporary Beijing city planning

The construction boom of the past two decades, primarily funded by the private sector, has engendered fierce aesthetic conflicts due to intense competition for limited space in rapidly modernizing Beijing. Contemporary Chinese artists both protest the commercial exploitation of traditional cultural sites, and appropriate market devices for their ends. In this article I analyze aesthetic strategies employed in experimental art, film, and fiction, which grapple with the tensions inherent in globalization and urban culture in late twentieth‐century Beijing. Examples include installations protesting the forced relocation of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1994 to develop a ‘City of Commerce’ in its place, and renting the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the Forbidden City to exhibit domestic experimental art, as a foil to the orientalist productions promoted at this site. While much contemporary Beijing cultural production shares a realist, documentary drive to address urban, post‐industrial anxieties relative to dislocation, Chinese artists deconstruct the present with a conspicuous absence of nostalgia. The contemporaneity of the ruin is one of the most prevalent expressions of the 1990s urban aesthetic, where the past, as human sentiment, is nonexistent. Rather than anachronistically violating chronology, these works are examples of what Ackbar Abbas terms achronicities, where past and present disappear in each other. As an aesthetic strategy, disappearance is a form of hybridity that resists delimiting not only temporal, but also conceptual and normative frames of reference. By highlighting hybrid effects rather than merely conceptualizing the tensions inherent in the global city, an aesthetics of disappearance functions as a site of resistance while also working to reposition artists at the center of commercial culture.     

U.S.‐Style Leadership for English Local Government?

Significant changes in the political management of local authorities in the United Kingdom are now taking place as a result of legislation passed by the Labour government since 1997. The new political management models aim to modernize local governance by strengthening local leadership, streamlining decision making, and enhancing local accountability. These changes owe much to U.S. experience: They involve the introduction of a separation of powers between an executive and an assembly, and they allow local authorities to introduce directly elected mayors for the first time ever. Is U.K. local government beginning to adopt what might be described as U.S.‐style approaches to local governance? The evidence suggests the new institutional designs for U.K. local authorities represent a radical shift toward U.S.‐style local leadership and decision making. However, the U.K. central state remains heavily involved in the details of local decision making, to an extent that would be unthinkable in the United States.     

Devolution in Uganda: an experiment in local service delivery

The ongoing programme for reform and reduction of the public service in Uganda relies heavily on the devolution of provision and delivery of most major public services to the lowest appropriate levels (primarily the District Councils 1 ), and therefore local government is becoming a key element in the search for new ways of governance. The rationale is that the overriding problem, as in much of Africa, is poverty and that the most effective way of tackling it is by the empowerment of the people to provide the services that they judge necessary and to decide their own local priorities in the allocation of resources. Whether the experiment succeeds will be determined in large measure by the ability and desire of the Government to ensure that local authorities have access to at least the same levels of resources as the previous service providers. Of equal importance is the capacity and ability of local government to meet the challenge, and this begs the question as to whether professional staff have the experience and competence and whether the elected members have the political skills, probity and integrity for the task. The policies have been well thought‐out and the solutions appear to be capable of implementation, but the ‘people factor’ will also be critical to success. The present scenario is guardedly encouraging; the devolution programme will probably meet sufficient of its objectives to justify the changes, given continuing donor support, and performance will improve as local authorities gain experience and self‐confidence. For its part, Government will need to resist the temptation to over‐supervise, and intervene only sparingly.

1 These are large units of administration, with average populations in excess of 500,000.

Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behavioral and Verbal Responses of Unabused Externalizing Children to Anatomically Detailed Doll Interviews

To see if unabused children with externalizing behavior disorders display more sexual behaviors and verbalizations than other children in their interactions with anatomically detailed dolls, sixteen 3- to 6-year-olds were compared with 44 nonexternalizing controls. A five-phase structured, detailed interview, and comprehensive coding of videotapes by external raters, was completed on 17 behaviors and verbalizations. As would be expected, externalizing children exhibited more overall activity than non-externalizing children. Also, externalizing children exhibited more behavioral sexual aggression during the body inventory phase, but no other differences in sexual behaviors or verbalizations occurred. Results suggest that most normative data on AD dolls generalize to externalizing children.     

B. Reviews: general

EARLY ISLAM: COLLECTED ARTICLES. By W. MONTGOMERY WATT. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1990. xi, 207pp.

THE KINGDOM OF CYPRUS AND THE CRUSADES 1191–1374. By PETER W. EDBURY. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xvi, 241 pp. £27.50 (hb).

MAMLOUKS, OTTOMANS ET PORTUGAIS EN MER ROUGE: L'AFFAIRE DE DJEDDA EN 1517. By JEAN‐LOUIS BACQUE‐GRAMMONT & ANNE KR(ELL. (Supplément aux Annales islamologiques, Cahier no.12). Le Caire, Publication de l'Institut français d'Archéologie orientale, 1988. 113 pp. 2 sketches, 4 pages of maps, 1 pull‐out table.

A SHI'ITE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA 1885–1886: THE SAFARNAMEH OF MIRZA MOHAMMAD HOSAYN FARAHANI. By MIRZA MOHAMMAD HOSAYN FARAHANI, ed., translated and annotated by HAFEZ FARMAYAN and ELTON L. DANIEL. London, Saqi Books, 1991. xxii, 380pp. £29.95 (hb).

ISLAMIC REFORM: POLITICS AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN LATE OTTOMAN SYRIA. By DAVID DEAN COMMINS. Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, 1990. 199pp.

RIYADH: THE OLD CITY. By WILLIAM FACEY. London, Immel, 1992. 370 + 14pp., 17 maps and plans, 94 illustrations. £29.95.

THE STUDY OF ARABIC IN MALTA, 1632 TO 1915. By DIONISIUS AGIUS. Translated from the Maltese by Vincenz P. Borg. Revised and edited by Francine Geraci. Louvain, Peeters, 1990. xii, 52pp. 3 illustrations.

ARAB VOICES: THE HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. By KEVIN DWYER. London, Routledge, 1991. 245 pp. $12.95.

SUPERPOWERS AND CLIENT STATES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE IMBALANCE OF INFLUENCE. Edited by MOSHE EFRAT and JACOB BERCOVITCH. London, Routledge, 1991. 272 pp.

STATECRAFT IN THE MIDDLE EAST: OIL, HISTORICAL MEMORY AND POPULAR CULTURE. Edited by ERIC DAVIS and NICOLAS GAVRIELIDES. Miami, Florida International University Press, 1991. 274 pp. $30.76 (hb), $13.82 (pb).

TRIBE AND STATE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Edited by PHILIP S. KHOURY and JOSEPH KOSTINER. London, Taurus, 1991. 352pp. £35.

HONOR AND GRACE IN ANTHROPOLOGY. Edited by J.G. PERISTIANY and JULIAN PITT‐RIVERS. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xiii, 260pp., 11 pp. illustrations. £35.00 (hb).

THE MODERN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST IN ITS WORLD CONTEXT. Edited by GEORGES SABAGH. (Tenth Giorgio Levi Delia Vida Biennial Conference.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989. 161pp.

ISLAMIC FINANCIAL MARKETS. Edited by RODNEY WILSON. London, Routledge, 1990. 242 pp.

BATISSEURS ET BUREAUCRATES: INGENIEURS ET SOCIETE AU MAGHREB ET AU MOYEN ORIENT. Edited by ELIZABETH LONGUENESSE. (Collection Etudes sur le Monde Arabe, 4.) Lyon, Maison de l'Orient Mediterranéen, 1991. 437pp.

POLITICS AND ECONOMY IN JORDAN. By RODNEY WILSON. London, Routledge, 1991. xiv, 243pp. £35.00.

TRIBES WITH FLAGS: A DANGEROUS PASSAGE THROUGH THE CHAOS OF THE MIDDLE EAST. By CHARLES GLASS. New York, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990. US$22.95 (cloth).

PITY THE NATION: LEBANON AT WAR. By ROBERT FISK. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991. xix, 662pp. Maps. £6.99 (pb).

WHO'S AT THE HELM? LESSONS OF LEBANON. By RAYMOND TANTER. Boulder, Westview Press, 1990. x, 262pp. Maps.

RELIGION AND CUSTOM IN A MUSLIM SOCIETY: THE BERTI OF SUDAN. By LADISLAV HOLY. (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, 78.) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xi, 243pp. 12 figs. Map. £30.00.

THE TRAGEDY OF THE TURKISH CAPITAL TAX. By FAIK OKTE. London, Croom Helm, 1987. 95 pp.

BARTERED BRIDES. By NANCY TAPPER. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xx, 309pp. £32.50 ($54.50).

MUSLIM FAMILIES IN NORTH AMERICA. Edited by EARLE H. WAUGH, SHARON McIRVIN ABU‐LABAN and REGULA BURCKHARDT QURESHI. Canada, University of Alberta Press, 1991. xiv, 370 pp. $39.95.

AFRICANISMO Y ORIENTALISMO ESPANOL, in AWRAQ: ESTUDIOS SOBRE EL MUNDO ARABE E ISLAMICO CONTEMPORANEO. Edited by VICTOR MORALES LEZCANO. (Anejo al Volumen XI.) Madrid, Agencia Espanola de Cooperation Internacional, Universidad Nacional de Education a Distancia, 1990. 217pp.

VEILED HALF‐TRUTHS. WESTERN TRAVELLERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF MIDDLE EASTERN WOMEN. By JUDY MABRO. London, Tauris, 1991. x, 275pp.     

Reviews

Paul Dukes, The Last Great Game: USA Versus USSR. Events, Conjunctures, Structures. London: Pinter Publishers in association with John Spiers, 1989, xii + 209 pp., £35.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b

Walter C. Clemens, Jr., Can Russia Change?: The USSR Confronts Global Interdependence. Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989, xxix + 384 pp., £38.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Neil Malcolm, Soviet Policy Perspectives on Western Europe. London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs/Routledge, 1989, viii + 117 pp., £7.95 p/b.

R. A. Longmire, Soviet Relations with South‐East Asia. London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1989, x + 176 pp., £35.00.

Geoffrey Roberts, The Unholy Alliance: Stalin's Pact with Hitler. London: I. B. Tauris, 1989, xviii + 296 pp., £19.95.

Anthony Jones & William Moskoff, eds., Perestroika and the Economy. New Thinking in Soviet Economics. Armonk, NY, London: M. E. Sharpe, 1989, xxii + 277 pp., $45.00.

Kristian Gerner & Stefan Hedlund, Ideology and Rationality in the Soviet Model: A Legacy for Gorbachev. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, xii + 455 pp., £30.00.

J. L. Porket, Work, Employment, and Unemployment in the Soviet Union. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, St. Antony's/Macmillan Series, 1989, xv + 250 pp., £37.50.

Vladimir Shlapentokh, Public and Private Life of the Soviet People. Changing Values in Post‐Stalin Russia. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989, 281 pp., $24.95.

David Joravsky, Russian Psychology: A Critical History. Oxford and Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989, xxii + 583 pp., £45.00.

W. O. McCagg & Lewis Siegelbaum, eds., The Disabled in the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989, 304 pp., $34.95.

Thomas F. Remington, ed., Politics and the Soviet System: Essays in Honour of Frederick C. Barghoom. London: Macmillan, 1989, 235 pp., £35.00.

Julian Graffy & Geoffrey Hosking, eds., Culture and the Media in the USSR Today. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan in association with SSEES, University of London, 1989, viii + 168 pp., £35.00 h/b, £14.99 p/b.

Carlo Frateschi, ed., Fluctuations and Cycles in Socialist Economies. Aldershot: Avebury, 1989, xiii + 157 pp., £25.00.

Martin Myant, The Czechoslovak Economy 1948–1988: The Battle for Economic reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, xii + 316 pp., £30.00, $54.50.

Michael Simmons, The Unloved Country: A Portrait of East Germany Today. London: Abacus, 1989, viii + 184 pp., £4.99 p/b.

David Childs, Thomas A. Baylis & Marilyn Rueschemeyer, eds., East Germany in Comparative Perspective. London: Routledge, 1989, xvi + 238 pp., £35.00.

David Turnock, Eastern Europe: An Economie and Political Geography. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, xiv + 360 pp., £35.00.

David Turnock, The Human Geography of Eastern Europe. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, xii + 345 pp., £35.00.

Theodore H. Friedgut, Iuzovka and Revolution. Volume 1: Life and Work in Russia's Donbas, 1869–1924. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989, xviii + 361 pp., illustrations, tables, $45.00.

Graham Smith, Planned Development in the Socialist World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, vi + 106 pp., £10.95 h/b, £5.95 p/b.

Lynn Turgeon, State and Discrimination. The Other Side of the Cold War. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1989, xii + 169 pp., $32.50.

Gerald D. Surh, 1905 in St. Petersburg: Labor, Society, and Revolution. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989, xvii + 456 pp., $45.00.     

Reviews

Ideology and Development in Africa by Crawford Young Yale University Press, New Haven (Connecticut), 1982. xviii plus 376 pp. including tables, notes and index. R62,57. R23,35 paperback.

Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa by Robert H. Bates Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983. xiii plus 184 pp. including tables, notes and index. R40,95.

Political Development Theory: The Contemporary Debate by Richard A. Higgott Croom Helm, London, 1983. xvi plus 124 pp. including index. £6,95 paperback.

Decolonization: The Administration and Future of the Colonies, 1919–1960 by Rudolf von Albertini Holmes and Meier, Inc., New York, 1982 (reprint), xxx plus 680 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. $ 37,50. $19,50 paperback.

Foreign Policy‐Making in Developing States: A Comparative Approach edited by Christopher Clapham Saxon House, Westmead, 1977. x plus 184 pp. including tables, maps, bibliography and index. R45,8o.

The Politics of Basic Needs: Urban Aspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa by Richard Sandbrook Heinemann, London, 1982. vi plus 250 pp. including tables, notes and index. £5,95 paperback.

Redistribution of Population in Africa edited by John I. Clarke and Leszek A. Kosiński Heinemann, London, 1982. xii plus 212 pp. including tables, figures, maps, index of names and subject index. £7,50 paperback.

Oral Historiography by David Henige Longman, London, 1982. x plus 150 pp. including notes, bibliography and index. £3,95 paperback.

Nigeria von der völkerrechtlichen Unabhangigkeit zur zweiten Republik: Analyse und Dokumentation by Joseph Lütke Entrup Verlag Hans Richarz, Sankt Augustin, 1981. 243 pp. including appendices and bibliography. DM29,80.

Oral Poetry and Somali Nationalism: The Case of Sayyid Mahammad ‘Abdille Hasan by Said S. Samatar Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982. xii plus 232 pp. including illustrations, figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index. R52,50.

Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget by David Goldsworthy Heinemann, London, 1982. xii plus 308 pp. including appendix and index. R30,80.

Development Policies and Approaches in Southern Africa edited by D. A. Kotzé Academica, Pretoria, 1983, 147 pp. including bibliography and index. R16,50.

Das südliche Afrika — I: Republik Südafrika‐Swasiland‐Lesotho by Ernst Klimm, Karl‐Günther Schneider and Bernd Wiese Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1980. 307 pp. including maps, tables, graphs and index. Also annexure of photographs. DM84,00.

Die Städte des südlichen Afrika by Karl‐Gunther Schneider and Bernd Wiese, Bornträger, Berlin and Stuttgart, 1983. 175 pp. including maps, tables, figures, graphs, photographs and index. DM98,00.

Südafrika: Fakten und Probleme by Karl‐Gunther Schneider and Bernd Wiese Seewald, Stuttgart, 1983. 187 pp. including maps, tables, figures, graphs, photographs and index. DM24,00.

Verkehrsgeographische Strukturwandlungen im südlichen Afrika, 1975–1980 by Joachim Jeske Institut für Afrika‐Kunde, Hamburg, 1981. 256 pp. including maps, tables and figures. DM22,00.

Malawi: Geographie eines unterentwickelten Landes by Cay Lienau Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1981. 243 pp. including maps, tables, graphs and index. Also annexure of photographs. DM89,00.

Kaunda on Violence by Kenneth D. Kaunda and edited by Colin M. Morris Willia m Collins, London, 1980. 184 pp. R6,95 paperback.

Under the Skin: The Death of White Rhodesia by David Caute Allen Lane, London, 1983. 447 pp. including maps and chronology. £14,95.

Race and Ethnicity: South African and International Perspectives edited by Hendrik W. van der Merwe and Robert A. Schrire, David Philip, Cape Town, 1980. 237 pp. including notes and index. R9,00 paperback.

South Africa in the World Economy edited by Jacqueline Matthews McGraw‐Hill, Johannesburg, 1983. xi plus 271pp. including index. R23,50.

Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 by Tom Lodge Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1983. x plus 389 pp. including figures, notes, sources and index. R 14,95 paperback.

Which Way is South Africa Going? by Gwendolen M. Carter Indiana University Press, Bloomington (Indiana), and London, 1980. xii plus 162 pp. including maps, bibliographical notes and index. $12,95.

The God of the Xhosa: A Study of the Origins and Development of the Traditional Concepts of the Supreme Being by Janet Hodgson Oxford University Press, Cape Town, 1982. xiv plus 131 pp. including appendices, bibliography and index. R9,75 paperback.

Black People and the South African War, 1899–1902 by Peter Warwick Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983. xiv plus 226 pp. including maps, tables, notes, select bibliography and index. R52,25.

Afrikaner Political Thought: Analysis and Documents — Volume I: 1780–1850 by André du Ton and Hermann Giliomee David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg, 1983. xxx plus 309 pp. including notes and index. R36,oo. R 18,00 paperback.     

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: THE COMMONWEALTH EXPERIENCE*

Abstract: This paper outlines the background and rationale of the Commonwealth Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation and discusses the specific nature and operation of the FOI Act, including some current issues emanating from the interpretation of some of its provisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) and the courts. The overall cost/benefit balance of the Act is considered, with particular reference to the recent report of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on the operation and administration of the Act.