Profligacy Or Prudence? Changes in Employment and Compensation of State and Local Government Workers

As the 1990s began, state and local governments across the country found themselves in a situation of fiscal stress. That stress has been attributed to several sources. Recently, it has been suggested that governments themselves brought on the fiscal squeeze by their own profligacy —a profligacy rooted in excessive increases in employment and compensation of government workers during the 1980s. After summarizing some arguments presented for and against describing state and local practices of the 1980s as profligate, this article compares its evidence on the growth of employment and compensation and notes some different interpretations. The article concludes that a strong statement of the profligacy position has not been proved.     

A. Reviews: general

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THE ORIGINS OF WESTERN ECONOMIC DOMINANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: MERCANTILISM AND THE ISLAMIC ECONOMY IN ALEPPO, 1600–1750. By BRUCE MASTERS. (New York University Studies in Near Eastern Civilisation, 12.) New York and London, New York University Press, 1988. xviii, 240 pp.

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SOVIET POLICIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST: FROM WORLD WAR II TO GORBACHEV. By GALIA GOLAN. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990. viii, 319 pp. £27.50

THE SUPERPOWERS AND THE SYRIAN‐ISRAELI CONFLICT. By HELENA COBBAN. (The Washington Papers.) New York, Praeger (with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C.), 1991. xxii, 182 pp. Map, tables, foreword by Robert G. Neumann. $19.95

LITTLE COMMON GROUND: ARAB AGRICULTURE AND JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN PALESTINE, 1920–1948. By CHARLES S. KAMEN. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991. xi, 327pp. $39.95.

CITIZENS APART: A PORTRAIT OF THE PALESTINIANS IN ISRAEL. By AMINA MINNS & NADIA HIJAB. (Society and Culture in the Modern Middle East.) London & New York, I.B. Tauris, 1990. xiii, 210pp. £19.95.

THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABS IN ISRAEL. By DAVID KRETZMER. (Westview Special Studies on the Middle East.) Boulder, San Francisco & Oxford, Westview Press, 1990. xii, 197pp. £13.50.

WAS THE RED FLAG FLYING THERE? MARXIST POLITICS AND THE ARAB‐ISRAELI CONFLICT IN EGYPT AND ISRAEL, 1948–1965. By JOEL BEININ. London, I.B. Tauris, 1990. xix, 317pp. £29.95.

EGYPT AND THE CRISIS OF ISLAM. By ZAHIA RAGHEB DAJANI. New York, Peter Lang, 1990. ix, 255pp.

WAR AND PEACE IN THE GULF: DOMESTIC POLITICS AND REGIONAL RELATIONS INTO THE 1990s. By ANOUSHIRAVAN EHTESHAMI and GERD NONNEMAN (with a contribution by CHARLES TRIPP). Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1991. 287pp. £30.00.

SUDAN: HISTORY, IDENTITY, IDEOLOGY. Edited by HERVÉ BLEUCHOT, CHRISTIAN DELMET and DEREK HOPWOOD. (St Antony's Middle East Monographs, 25.) Reading, Ithaca Press, 1991. xvi, 298 pp. £25.00.

TRIBES, GOVERNMENT AND HISTORY IN YEMEN. By PAUL DRESCH. Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1989. xxix, 440pp. 14 bw. plates.

SOCOTRA: ISLAND OF TRANQUILLITY. By BRIAN DOE. London, Immel Publishing, 1992. 236pp. £50.00

AN OVERVIEW OF MODERN ARABIC LITERATURE. By PIERRE CACHIA. (Islamic Surveys.) Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1990. viii, 241pp. £30.00 (hb).

THE ARABIAN ORAL HISTORICAL NARRATIVE: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC AND LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS. By SAAD A. SOWAYAN. (Semitica Viva, 6.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1992. xii, 323pp. DM88.‐

ARABCARD. By ADRIAN BROCKETT, OWEN TAYLOR and IAN CLARK. Durham, University of Durham, Centre for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, 1991. (Version reviewed: 3.2). Base Package (3 diskettes): £50.

ISLAM IN EUROPEAN THOUGHT. By ALBERT HOURANI. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991.     

Reviews

R. W. Davies, The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 1. The Soviet Offensive: The Collectivisation of Soviet Agriculture, 1929–1930. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1980, xxi+491 pp., twenty tables. £20.00.

The Industrialisation of Soviet Russia 2. The Soviet Collective Farm, 1929–1930. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1980. x + 216 pp., nine tables. £20.00.

Zdeně'k Mlynár, Night Frost in Prague. The End of Humane Socialism. London: C. Hurst & Co., 1980. 300 pp. £9.50.

Alistair McAuley, Economic Welfare in the Soviet Union: Poverty, Living Standards and Inequality. Hemel Hempstead: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1979 and Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979. xix + 389pp. £15.00.

Nicolas Spulber, Organizational Alternatives in Soviet‐type Economies. London: C.U.P., 1979, x + 290 pp, index. £15.00.

J. H. Moore, Growth with Self‐Management: Yugoslav Industrialization 1952–1975. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1980. xvi + 334 pp. $17.95.

Richard K. Ashley, The Political Economy of War and Peace. The Sino‐Soviet‐American Triangle and the Modern Security Problematique. London: Frances Pinter (Publishers) Ltd., New York: Nichols Publishing Company, 1980. xv + 384 pp. £15.

Boris Komarov (pseud.), The Destruction of Nature in the Soviet Union. Foreword by Marshall I. Goldman. White Plains, New York: M. E. Sharpe,* 1980. x+150pp. $15.00.

George Katkov, The Kornilov Affair: Kerensky and the Break‐up of the Russian Army. London and New York: Longman, 1980. xiv + 210 pp. £4.95 paper.     

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