Durable Governors as Political Leaders: Should We Limit Tenure?

"Durable governors," that is, governors who have had more thaneight years of continuous service and won three or more electionsin the past four decades, are of major importance for debatesover limits on gubernatorial tenure. This study examines hypothesesregarding the socioeconomic, political, and individual characteristicsassociated with the emergence of durable governors and theirdegree of political success during their later terms of office.Major differences exist between states which have produced durableDemocratic governors and states which have produced durableRepublican governors. Surprisingly, however, durable governorsdo not emerge more frequently in less competitive states. Thelevel of success which the durable governors have had in maintainingelectoral support and partisan legislative majorities giveslittle indication of a general decline of performance duringlengthy tenure. The performances of the durable governors andthe conditions which have facilitated their emergence lend supportto the movement away from constitutional limitations on gubernatorialreelection.     

Federalism and the Strong-State/Weak-State Conundrum: Canadian Economic Policymaking in Comparative Perspective

The areal dispersion of power and constitutional division ofresponsibilities in federal arrangements are generally feltto limit the ability of federal systems to improve economicperformance. Examining Canada within a comparative framework,we assess "the federations as weak states" hypothesis as wellas the utility of the "strong-state/weak-state" model itself.Although some aspects of the Canadian federal system—namelythe combination of federal with parliamentary traditions andthe resulting adverse policy styles—inhibit the adoptionof effective economic adjustment policies, these features arenot necessarily found in other federal arrangements. Comparisonswith Switzerland, Austria, and West Germany suggest that, undercertain circumstances, federal power sharing may be conduciveto bringing about broad agreement on both goals and policiesamong national, regional, and local governments and major economicactors.     

Reviews

Vladimir Shlapentokh, Soviet Intellectuals and Political Power: The Post‐Stalin Era. London: I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1990, xiv + 321 pp., £19.95

Jadwiga Staniszkis, The Dynamics of the Breakthrough in Eastern Europe. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, xiii + 303 pp., £25.00, $35.00.

Richard Sakwa, Gorbachev and his Reforms, 1985–1990. London: Philip Allan, 1990, xiv + 459 pp., £35.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Julian Cooper, The Soviet Defence Industry: Conversion and Reform. London: Pinter Publishers, 1991, ix + 111 pp., £22.50 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Elizabeth Winiecki & Jan Winiecki, The Structural Legacy of the Soviet‐Type Economy. London: CRCE, 1992, 133 pp., £6.50 p/b.

Marsha Siefert, ed., Mass Culture and Perestroika in the Soviet Union. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991, 200 pp., $35.00.

Anne White, De‐Stalinization and the House of Culture. Declining state control over leisure in the USSR, Poland and Hungary, 1953–89. London and New York: Routledge, 1990, x+195 pp., £30.00.

Deborah Adelman, The ‘Children of Perestroika’. Moscow Teenagers Talk About Their Lives and the Future. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1991, xxiii + 256 pp., $24.95.

Michael Marrese & Sándor Richter, eds, The Challenge of Simultaneous Economic Relations with East and West. London: Macmillan, 1990, xviii + 216 pp., £45.00.

David W. Hunter, Western Trade Pressure on the Soviet Union. Basingstoke: Macmillan Academic and Professional Ltd, 1991, xii + 163 pp., £45.00

Pierre Maurer, La Reconciliation Sovieto‐Yougoslave, 1954–1958: Illusions et Disillusions de Tito. Cousset, Fribourg: Editions Delval, 1991, 474 pp., no price.     

Is informalization equalizing? Evidence from Kinshasa (DRC)

As a consequence of a concatenation of external and internal events, the economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has informalized to an unprecedented level over the last few decades. A comparison of budget surveys carried out in 1975 and 2004 respectively allows us to ascertain the effect of this process on income inequality and poverty in Kinshasa. We find that the extent of inequality in the capital city of the DRC has remained largely unchanged, which strongly suggests that informalization has been a viable survival strategy for those at the lower-income end of society. Unexpectedly, whereas distinctions such as gender and age lost much of their profiling power in the period considered, other cleavages such as education and geography, which may be assumed to be much more intimately related to the formal sector, continued to play an important role in structuring inequality in Kinshasa’s deeply informalized economy.     

Imposing Procedural Constraints on State Administrative Agencies: An Empirical Investigation of Competing Explanations

Scholars have offered different explanations for administrative procedures. One general approach stresses the importance of normative theory as a determinant of institutional choice, while two other perspectives emphasize the interests and political influence of pressure groups and legislators. To test these models, this study uses comparative state data to predict the adoption of three types of administrative procedures-legislative rule review, procedural requirements opening up the rulemaking process to public participation, and economic impact analysis. The findings suggest that factors associated with the adoption of one kind of administrative requirement may not be associated with the use of others. The analysis also suggests that, while ideology, political culture, and party competition intermittently affect the adoption of particular administrative procedures, they do not always have the kinds of effects that are suggested by the traditional state policy making literature.     

Reviews

Culture in Africa: An Appeal for Pluralism edited by Raoul Granqvist. Seminar Proceedings No.29. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala. 1993. 204 pp. illustrated.

Social Change And Economic Reform in Africa edited by Peter Gibbon. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1993. 379 pp. including references and notes on contributors.

The Idea of Africa by V.Y.Mudimbe. Indiana University Press, Bloomington & Indianapolis, and James Currey, London. 1994. xvii plus 234 pp. including illustrations, bibliography and index.

Can National Dialogue Break the Power of Terror in Burundi? Report on the Impact of the International Conference National Dialogue Held in Bujumbura, May 15–18, on Burundian Efforts to Restore Domestic Process in the Country by Zdenek Cervenka and Colin Legum. Current African Issues 17. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden. 1994. 29 pp.

Ethnicity in Focus: The South African Case by Simon Bekker. Indicator SA Issue Focus, Centre for Social and Development Studies, University of Natal. 1993. iii plus 117pp. including notes, bibliography and index.

Liquor and Labour in Southern Africa edited by Jonathan Crush and Charles Ambler. Athens and Pietermaritzburg: Ohio University Press and University of Natal Press. 1992. 412 pp. including figures, tables and index.

Chelewa, Chelewa, The Dilemma of Teenage Girls edited by Zubeida Tumbo‐Masabo and Rita Liljestrom. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet. 1994. 218 pp.

Towards More Appropriate Technologies? Experiences from the Water and Sanitation Sector by Mariken Vaa. Report No. 94, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1993. 91 pp. including references.

From the Mountains to the Plains. The Integration of the Lafofa Nuba into Sudanese Society by L.O. Manger. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala. 1994. 175 pp.

The New Local Level Politics in East Africa. Studies on Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya edited by Peter Gibbon. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala. 1994. Research Report No. 95. 118 pp. including figures, notes and references. Paperback. US$9.95.

Tanzania: The Limits to Development from Above by Kjell J. Havnevik. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. 1993. 343 pp. including tables, bibliography and appendices.

A Blighted Harvest: The World Bank and African Agriculture in the 1980s by Peter Gibbon, Kjell J. Havnevik and Kenneth Hermele. James Currey, London and Africa World Press, Trenton, New Jersey. 1993.