The Internet and Parliamentary Democracy in Europe

The overall aim of this volume is to investigate the impact of new information and communications technologies (ICTs), in particular the Internet, upon parliamentary democracy in Europe. Through a comparative study of four parliaments (the British, European, Portuguese and Swedish), our research addresses three important dimensions of the impact of the Internet on parliamentary democracy, namely, the practices, principles and rules related to the use of the Internet in a parliamentary context. It is hoped that, by comparing the experiences of the four parliaments and their Members, a European perspective on the development of and issues about ‘parliamentary e-Democracy’ can be established. The main sources of data and methodologies employed in this volume include a questionnaire survey, content analysis of parliamentary websites, interviews with parliamentarians and parliamentary staff and research workshops. Here we highlight the main features of the individual contributions included in this volume.     

Book reviews

Anthony Giddens, THE CONSEQUENCES OF MODERNITY (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1990). Anthony Giddens, MODERNITY AND SELF‐IDENTITY: SELF AND SOCIETY IN THE LATE MODERN AGE (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1991)

Robert B. Westbrook, JOHN DEWEY AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991)

David Harvey, THE CONDITION OF POSTMODERNITY: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE ORIGINS OF CULTURAL CHANGE (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989)

Robin Blackburn, ed., AFTER THE FALL: THE FAILURE OF COMMUNISM AND THE FUTURE OF SOCIALISM (London and New York: Verso, 1991)

Andrew Hacker, TWO NATIONS: BLACK AND WHITE, SEPARATE, HOSTILE, UNEQUAL. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992)

Ridgeway, James, BLOOD IN THE FACE: THE KU KLUX KLAN, ARYAN NATIONS, NAZI SKINHEADS AND THE RISE OF A NEW WHITE CULTURE (New York: Thunders Mouth Press, 1991)

Gene H. Bell‐Villada, THE CARLOS CHADWICK MYSTERY: A NOVEL OF COLLEGE LIFE AND POLITICAL TERROR. (Albuquerque, NM: Amador Publishers, 1990)     

Haranguing Hong Kong

The Economic Future of Hong Kong, by Mir on Mushkat. Lynne Rienner, Publishers, Boulder and London/Hong Kong University Press, 1990. xii+171 pp. £16.50. ISBN 1–555–87197–6.

City on the Rocks: Hong Kong's Uncertain Future, by Kevin Rqfferty. Viking, London, 1989. x + 518 pp., 16 pp. plates. £15.95. ISBN0–670–80205–0.

Political Change and the Crisis of Legitimacy in Hong Kong, by Ian Scott. C. Hurst, London, 1990. xv + 480 pp. £27.50. ISBN 1–850650–527.

Kowtow! After Tiananmen Square: A Plea on Behalf of Hong Kong, by William Shawcross. Chatto CounterBlasts No. 6. Chatto and Windus, London, 1989. 57 pp. £2.99. ISBN 0–7011–3628–6.

Democracy Shelved: Great Britain, China, and Attempts at Constitutional Reform in Hong Kong, 1945–1952, by Steve Yui‐Sang Tsang. Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1988. xxxiv + 254 pp. £18.50. ISBN 0–19–584175–1.

Hong Kong! Hong Kong!, by Dick Wilson. Unwin Hyman, London, 1990. 284 pp. £15.99. ISBN 0–04–440622.     

The emergence of stable racially and ethnically diverse urban communities: A case study of nine U.S. cities

Abstract

We examine the characteristics of 14 stable racially and ethnically diverse urban communities in 9 U.S. cities and point to policies that could strengthen these communities and encourage the growth of more diverse neighborhoods in American cities. The cities examined are Chicago; Denver; Houston; Memphis, TN; Milwaukee; New York; Oakland, CA; Philadelphia; and Seattle. University researchers and community leaders in each city collaborated on the research for this project.

We identify two types of stable diverse communities, “self‐conscious” and “laissez‐faire,” which have evolved for different reasons and with different characteristics. Stable diverse communities will not just happen, but they can be influenced by a number of policy recommendations stemming from our research. These include helping individuals and organizations take leadership roles in their communities, strengthening and enforcing fair housing and antidiscrimination laws, earmarking economic resources to encourage neighborhood diversity, and creating community safety and jobs programs.     

Potentials for federation of East African educational programmes

Educational planning, in the modern sense of the term, goes back in Thailand no further than 1962, when the Second Economic and Social Development Plan (1962/66) was launched. The Second Plan included a plan for the educational system as did the Third Plan (1967/71) which is now drawing to a close. These two educational plans were based on a variety of methods, including those of making long‐term forecasts of manpower requirements. Between 1963 and 1967, five different groups prepared manpower forecasts for Thailand, some of which looked no further than 1970, while others projected manpower requirements up to 1968. In this paper we will try to assess the quality of these forecasts and, so far as it is possible, to cmmpare prediction with outcome.

The paper consists of four parts. We begin with a brief review of background data in order to highlight the problems of manpower forecasting in an economy such as that of Thailand. The second section is devoted to a detailed discussion of the first and most ambitious of the five forecasts that have been made in Thailand. This is followed by brief evaluations of the remaining four forecasts. In the fast section, we will consider the influence that these forecasts actually exerted on educational planning in Thailand.     

Risky business: Covering slow‐onset hazards as rapidly developing news

The emerging field of risk communication has yet to thoroughly grapple with how the mass media report risk. Through a content analysis of five newspapers noted for their science reporting, newspaper coverage of four environmental hazards is compared to media coverage of more traditional risky events. In general, these slow‐to‐develop stories are reported in much the same way as more traditional disaster stories. News accounts emphasized an event orientation, framed risks in terms of human activity rather than social and political contexts, described risk in terms of harms and benefits, and relied on traditional sources. The authors then explore how this version of mass‐mediated risk might change current definitions of risk communication and how a mediated construction of risk may influence public perception of the political choices these issues raise.     

Procyclical government spending: a public choice analysis

Procyclical government spending occurs when government expenditures increase at a faster rate than income in an economic upturn but fall at a faster rate in a recession. Voracity effects occur when competition for increased spending proves more effective as national income increases. Public choice theory can be applied to describe the distribution of fiscal power across different tiers of government to shed insight into competition for intergovernmental transfers. Politicians have electoral incentives to press for intergovernmental transfers but they also have electoral incentives to signal their ability to manage the economy. With this mix of incentives, the prediction is that intergovernmental transfers will be procyclical and that sub-central government spending will be more procyclical than central government spending. Public choice analysis of pressure for increased public spending predicts a specific pattern of cyclical government spending. This pattern can be observed when analyzing government expenditures in 20 OECD countries between 1995 and 2006.