Book reviews

Ash Amin and John Tomaney (eds), Behind the Myth of European Union: Prospects for Cohesion (Routledge, London, 1995), 334 pp., ISBN 0–415–13078–6 (pb)

Stephen Gundle and Simon Parker (eds), The New Italian Republic: Front the Fall of the Berlin Wall to Berlusconi (Routledge, London, 1996), 334 pp., ISBN 0–415–12161–2 (hb), 0–415–12162 (pb)

Donald Sassoon, One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century (I. B. Tauris, London, 1996), 965 pp., ISBN 1–85043–879‐X

Geoff Mulgan, Connexity: How to Live in a Connected World (Chatto & Windus, London, 1997), 280 pp., ISBN 0–7011–6396–8     

The MacArthur Treatment Competence Study. II

This article reports the development and psychometric properties of three standardized and objectively scored measures, the MacArthur Treatment Competence Research Instruments. They were designed to assess abilities related conceptually to four legal standards for competence to consent to treatment: understanding, appreciation, rational manipulation (reasoning), and expressing a choice. Scoring reliability, internal consistency, intertest correlations, and test-retest correlations were examined with data from samples of hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, major depression, and ischemic heart disease, as well as matched non-ill community samples. The results indicate very good interscorer reliability and provide guidance for the use of the instruments and interpretation of their results in future research on patients' decisional abilities in treatment contexts.     

Diversity as a policy goal: The case of television

Diversity in communications is most appropriately understood as a free flow of ideas. In order to implement diversity, a comprehensive model of the communication process must be used for policy research, so that the various participants in the process can be properly restrained from abridging the free flow of ideas. The setting of priorities for implementing diversity has been illustrated using available studies of broadcast and cable television.     

Local planners — global constraints

A number of reports have been published over the past few years documenting the evidence of decline in the northeastern U.S.A. and the simultaneous migration of industry to the U.S. Sunbelt. (Academy for Contemporary Problems, 1977; Sale, 1975; Sternlieb and Hughes, 1975). In developing appropriate recommendations to planners, such studies invariably urge that localities or regions facing industrial out-migration arrest this activity by making themselves more suitable and attractive (Council for Northeast Economic Action [CNEA], 1977a) within the framework of a number of characteristic strategies. We propose to examine critically some of the traditional strategies recommended by these reports.     

Reviews

Allan K. Wildman, The End of the Russian Imperial Army: The Old Army and the Soldiers’ Revolt (March‐April 1917). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. 402 pp. £13.70.

Adam Zwass, Money, Banking and Credit in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, translated by Michel C. Vale. New York: M. E. Sharpe Inc. London: Macmillan, 1979. 233 pp. £12.00.

Jan Adam, Wage Control and Inflation in the Soviet Bloc Countries. London: Macmillan, 1979. i‐xx+243 pp. £15.00.

Robert A. Lewis and Richard H. Rowland, Population Redistribution in the USSR. Its Impact on Society, 1897–1977. New York: Praeger Publishers (Praeger Special Studies), 1979. xx + 485 pp. £22.50.

Michael Bourdeaux, The Land of Crosses, Chulmleigh, Devon: Augustine Publishing Company, 1979, xviii + 339 pp. £3.00.

V. Stanley Vardys, The Catholic Church, Dissent and Nationality in Soviet Lithuania. Boulder: East European Quarterly. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, 1978. 336 pp. $18.00.

Richard Taylor, The Politics of the Soviet Cinema 1917–1929. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979, xvi + 214 pp. £9.50.