Reviews

R. W. Davies, The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 3: The Soviet Economy in Turmoil. 1929–1930. London: Macmillan, 1989, xx+601 pp., £47.50.

Peter Nolan, The Political Economy of Collective Farms: An Analysis of China's Post‐Mao Rural Reforms. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988, viii+259 pp., £29.50.

Adam Zwass, The CMEA: The Thorny Path from Political to Economic Integration. Armonk, NY: M E Sharpe inc., 1989, xiii+268 pp., $45.00.

Szymon Jakubowicz, Wer rettet Polens Wirtschaft? Das Ringen urn die Arbeiterselbstverwaltung. (Who will save Poland's Economy? The Struggle about Workers’ Self‐Management). Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder Taschenbuch Verlag, 1989, 334 pp., DM18.90.

Jim Riordan ed., Soviet Youth Culture. London: Macmillan, 1989, x+148 pp., £27.50 h/b, £9.95 p/b.

Richard Sakwa, Soviet Politics: An Introduction. London: Routledge, 1989, xvi+356 pp., £12.95 p/b.

Walter D. Connor, Socialism's Dilemmas: State and Society in the Soviet Bloc. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988, x+299 pp., $37.00.

R. W. Davies, Soviet History in the Gorbachev Revolution. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan in association with the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Birmingham, 1989, viii+232 pp., £29.50 h/b, £7.99 p/b.

Takayuki Ito, ed. Facing Up to the Past: Soviet Historiography under Perestroika. Sapporo: Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, 1989, 290 pp.

Seweryn Bialer and Michael Mandelbaum, The Global Rivals: The Soviet‐American Contest for Supremacy. London: I. B. Tauri's, 1989, 220 pp., £14.95.

Matthew Evangelista, Innovation and the Arms Race. New York: Cornell University Press, 1988, xvi+ 300 pp., $32.95.

Steven Merritt Miner, Between Churchill and Stalin: The Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the Origins of the Grand Alliance. North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1989, 319 pp., $39.60.

Olimpiad S. Ioffe, Soviet Civil Law, ser. Law in Eastern Europe, no. 36. Dordrecht, Boston, MA, Lancaster: Reidel, 1988, ix+382 pp.

Stephen White, Soviet Communism: Programme and Rules. London and New York: Routledge, 1989, vii+141 pp., £25.00.

Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History. Toronto, Buffalo, NY, and London: The University of Toronto Press in association with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1988, xii+666 pp., £35.00, $57.50.

Francesco Benvenuti, The Bolsheviks and the Red Army, 1918–1922, translated by Christopher Woodall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988, viii+264 pp., £27.50, $44.50.     

The mentally retarded offender in the criminal justice system

The problem of the mentally retarded offender begins at the first encounter with the criminal justice system and continues through the correctional system. A recent survey compared attitudus of police and mental health professional. Police (78%) felt that disturbed person (including mentally retarded offenders) should be handcuffed when being transported. In contrast, mental health professionals (84%) felt no individual should be handcuffed. The mentally retarded offenders, once incarcerated, are a group that is confronted with problems beyond those usually associated with prison life. The authors examine the complex issued stemming from the special conditions of the MRO and suggest recommendations for developing rational attitudes and policies within the criminal justice system.     

Imaginaries of the Pandemic in Chile: A Conceptual-Empirical Discussion

This article aims to reconstruct the social imaginaries of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Chile. We seek to understand how families interpret their experience confronting the pandemic by identifying four main aspects: (a) the COVID-19 pandemic, (b) working and learning, (c) health and (d) family life. Following Habermas' distinction between lifeworld and social systems, we consider these issues as constituting the social imaginary of lifeworld, different but related to the imaginaries of social systems. The qualitative empirical data was gathered through a sample of 38 families interviewed online between September 2020 and January 2021 in four Chilean cities: Iquique, Valparaíso, Santiago and Concepción. Other complementary sources of information are multimodal ethnography (digital diaries), press articles and state reports.     

Internet control through ownership: the case of Russia

The Russian Internet remained relatively unregulated compared to the media sector as a whole until about 2012. One of the levers for increased control over the Internet was ownership, direct or indirect, of the most important infrastructure and websites. Control through ownership over the Russian Internet companies has increased, but in a finely calibrated fashion in order not to spark discontent and risk the formation of a social movement. The Internet’s global nature, however, has made it impossible to use the same methods against international companies. The Russian government has had to exert other forms of pressure, change legislation, or block entire social networks. Furthermore, increasing and more systematic control through ownership carries with it considerable long-term consequences and costs, both when it comes to the modernization of Russia and in terms of possible rising discontent if Internet users no longer accept that the repressive measures taken are in their interest.     

Institutional preconditions of privatization in market-based political economies: Implications for Jordan

Concepts of privatization have been adopted on a global scale. Yet few studies examine issues other than economic and selected political ones. This article argues, however, that a broad spectrum of institutional considerations must be evaluated in order to assess the viability of any proposed privatization strategy. A further distinction must be made between countries with developed markets and those market-based political economies (MBPEs) whose extant institutional configurations have not reached a level of independence to fully support extensive privatization measures. Jordan, Turkey and Egypt would be examples of such countries. This article contends that the enactment and implementation of privatization policies will achieve its avowed goals only (a) if the state-controlled enterprises (SCEs) are sufficiently independent of their supervising bureaucracies (presumably a ministry, the treasury or development planning organization) prior to their transfer to a private partner and (b) if the government possesses requisite monitoring capacity to ensure the fulfilment of contractual obligations of the privatized entity. An ancillary thesis suggests that the societal and organizational culture must be succinctly separated to warrant a full-scale transfer of SCEs to the private sector. In Jordan, privatization has been discussed for a number of years, but no projects have been attempted so far. The article assesses the likelihood of large-scale privatization occurring soon.     

Determination of Inorganic Ion Profiles of Illicit Drugs by Capillary Electrophoresis

A portable capillary electrophoresis instrument with dual capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (C⁴D) was used to determine the inorganic ionic profiles of three pharmaceutical samples and precursors of two illicit drugs (contemporary samples of methylone and para‐methoxymethamphetamine). The LODs ranged from 0.10 μmol/L to 1.25 μmol/L for the 10 selected cations, and from 0.13 μmol/L to 1.03 μmol/L for the eight selected anions. All separations were performed in less than 6 min with migration times and peak area RSD values ranging from 2 to 7%. The results demonstrate the potential of the analysis of inorganic ionic species to aid in the identification and/or differentiation of unknown tablets, and real samples found in illicit drug manufacture scenarios. From the resulting ionic fingerprint, the unknown tablets and samples can be further classified.     

Intimate Partner Violence in Cohabiting Families: Reports by Multiple Informants and Associations with Adolescent Outcomes

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is common, particularly in families with children. Observing such verbal and physical aggression has consistently been linked to unfavorable outcomes for affected children. Although cohabiting families are becoming increasingly prevalent and preliminary data suggest that rates of IPV may be high in these families, little is currently known about IPV and its impact as experienced by adolescents living in cohabiting families. This study used data from low-income urban Black cohabiting families (N = 92) to (1) examine agreement of reports of verbal and physical IPV between the adolescent and the mother and between the adolescent and the male cohabiting partner (MCP) and (2) test associations between IPV and youth mental health. A higher percentage of adolescents reported the occurrence of IPV, particularly physical violence, than did mothers and MCPs. Relative to those living in minimally violent or verbally violent homes, adolescents living in verbally and physically violent homes reported higher rates of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors. These youth also reported higher levels of self-blame for the conflict and a worse relationship with the MCP but not the mother.     

The Cost and Affordability Paradox of Transit-Oriented Development: A Comparison of Housing and Transportation Costs Across Transit-Oriented Development,Hybrid and Transit-Adjacent Development Station Typologies

Abstract

This study presents a comparison of housing and transportation costs (H+T) in 4,399 fixed-route transit station areas across the United States. Each station area is classified as a transit-oriented development (TOD), hybrid, or transit-adjacent development (TAD) based on walkability and housing density targets. Station areas with a Walk Score of 70 or greater and a gross housing density of 8 units per acre or more are classified as TOD. Station areas that meet just one of these criteria are classified as hybrids, and those that do not meet either of these criteria are categorized as TAD. The findings reveal a paradox that whereas TOD are more expensive places to buy and rent housing, they are more affordable than hybrids and TAD because the lower cost of transportation offsets housing costs. We argue that policies to increase the density and walkability of hybrid and TAD station areas, which account for two thirds of all station areas across the United States, should be a top priority for both housing and transportation officials.     

How Affordable Is HUD Affordable Housing?

This article assesses the affordability of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental assistance properties from the perspective of transportation costs. HUD housing is, by definition, affordable from the standpoint of housing costs due to limits on the amounts renters are required to pay. However, there are no such limitations on transportation costs, and common sense suggests that renters in remote locations may be forced to pay more than 15% of income, a nominal affordability standard, for transportation costs. Using household travel models estimated with data from 15 diverse regions around the United States, we estimated and summed automobile capital costs, automobile operating costs, and transit fare costs for households at 8,857 HUD rental assistance properties. The mean percentage of income expended on transportation is 15% for households at the high end of the eligible income scale. However, in highly sprawling metropolitan areas, and in suburban areas of more compact metropolitan areas, much higher percentages of households exceed the 15% ceiling. This suggests that locational characteristics of properties should be considered for renewal when HUD contracts expire for these properties, based on location and hence on transportation affordability.