Reviews

Herbert J. Ellison, (ed.), Soviet Policy Toward Western Europe, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. 1983. xvii + 322 pp. £25.00.

Edwina Moreton and Gerald Segal, (eds.), Soviet Strategy Toward Western Europe, London: George Allen & Unwin. 1984. 296 pp. £17.50.

Lawrence L. Whetten (ed.), The Present State of Communist Internationalism, Lexington & Toronto: Lexington Books, 1983, xi + 254 pp. £25.00.

Neil Harding (ed.), The State in Socialist Society, London: MacMillan, 1984, 316 pp. h/b £20.00. p/b £7.95.

Stephen White, John Gardner and George Schopflin, Communist Political Systems: an Introduction, Macmillan, 1982, viii + 293 pp. £15.00.

John Erickson, The Road to Berlin. Volume 2 of Stalin's War with Germany, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983. xiii + 877 pp. £20.00.

John B. Dunlop, The Faces of Contemporary Russian Nationalism, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983, 363 pp. £28.20.

Aryeh L. Unger, Constitutional Development in the USSR. A Guide to the Soviet Constitutions, London: Methuen, 1981. viii + 310 pp. £12.50.

Stefan Hedlund, Crisis in Soviet Agriculture, London and Sydney: Croom Helm and New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984, 228 pp. £17.95.

Vladimir Sobell, The Red Market: Industrial Co‐operation and Specialisation in Comecon, Gower Publishing Company, 1984, 265 pp. £16.50.

Raymond Hutchings, The Structural Origins of Soviet Industrial Expansion, London and Basingstoke, Macmillan: 1984, x + 242 pp. Index, £25.00.

Peter Blandon, Soviet Forest Industries, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Distributed by Bowker Publishing Co., Erasmus House, Epping, Essex, UK 290 pp. £19.75.

Ronald Grigor Suny, Transcaucasia: Nationalism and Social Change. Essays in the history of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, University of Michigan: Ann Arbor, 1983, 349 pp. + xiv.

Sidney Bloch and Peter Reddaway, Soviet Psychiatric Abuse: The Shadow over World Psychiatry, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. 1984, 288 pp. £10.95.

Thomas T. Hammond, Red Flag Over Afghanistan. The Communist Coup, the Soviet Invasion, and the Consequences, Boulder, Colorado; Westview Press, 1984, xvii + 261 pp. £9.75 pb., £23.00 hb.

Martin Crouch and Robert Porter (eds.), Understanding Soviet Politics through Literature. A book of readings, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1984, xi + 211 pp. h/b £15.00. p/b £6.95.

Bernard Chavance, Le système économique soviétique, Paris: Editions le Sycomore, 1983, 114pp. Price: 33F.

S. Brucan, The post‐Brezhnev era, New York: Praeger, 1983 126 pp. xiii + $21.95.     

Judicial misconduct

Although judges are subject to the same human frailty as all other members of society, they must expect their conduct to be the subject of constant public scrutiny. This article examines instances of judicial misconduct in the USA. It considers various aspects of misconduct including humour, courtroom management, denigration of lawyers, racist speech, sexual harassment, acceptance of gifts, alcohol misuse, and financial conduct. These illustrations of misconduct by judicial colleagues are intended to serve as cautionary tales from which judges in other jurisdictions can learn lessons as they to seek to act in a manner that promotes public confidence.     

Democratization,Instability, and War: Israel's 2006 Conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah

In 2006 Israel resumed military operations in the Gaza Strip and conducted a war in Lebanon following attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah, respectively. Due to the elections that had recently taken place in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, these events seem to support the argument that democratizing nations are particularly war-prone. Yet the dynamics this perspective identifies as dangerous were largely absent. To address this puzzle, this paper offers three arguments. First, democratization enhanced the power of groups openly hostile to Israel, increasing Israel's perception of threat. Second, democratization was threatening because it occurred within highly divided societies governed by weak state institutions that allowed radical groups to attain political power. Finally, Israel's response to the increased threat posed by these groups was ultimately counterproductive because it further eroded the capacity of the Palestinian and Lebanese governments, heightened polarization within both societies, and therefore exacerbated the same conditions that made democratization threatening to begin with.     

Clarity of responsibility and economic evaluations

Convincing scholarly evidence shows the economy directs the mass public's support for parties and leaders. But the extent of economic voting depends on a country's “clarity of responsibility.” According to several scholars, political clarity is important because it determines whether people link national economic performance to the parties in government. This study explores a potential second role, which involves how clarity moderates the strength of partisan-motivated reasoning. Clarity of responsibility makes the economy more or less central to party politics. It could therefore moderate people's motivation to rationalize economic facts in a biased direction. Using cross-national survey data, this study tests this possibility by examining economic disagreement between people who support a party in government and those who support the opposition. Results from a Bayesian multilevel regression show that partisan disagreement varies systematically with clarity of responsibility. This finding raises new questions about cross-national differences in economic voting.     

Accountability,Test Prep Incentives,and the Design of Math and English Exams

We examine how incentives for test prep varied between math and English language arts (ELA) on U.S. state accountability exams. We collected data on exam structure for grade 3 to 8 tests in six states that are the setting for most U.S. research in literatures where accountability matters. We show that math exams typically measured ability more precisely for students on the margin of achieving proficiency. This gave educators an incentive to spend more time preparing students for math tests than for ELA tests, consistent with the common finding of larger math effects in the literature.