Books in review

His publications include The Ways Out: Utopian Communal Groups in an Age of Babylonand Gone From the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History.     

Generating Usable Knowledge through an Experimental Approach to Public Administration

This introduction to the symposium on experimental methods in public administration shows how using experimental methods generates not only research that is empirically credible, but also relates to the real world of public administration. The ten articles in the symposium subject classic public administration theories or hypotheses that have been generated in nonexperimental research to rigorous testing using experimental methods. The first group of articles consists of studies with citizens who interact with government. The second group consists of three studies with public officials.     

Zwischen „der Eurokratie“ und „den Leuten“: Zum Problem der professionellen Vermittlung von Europapolitik

EU politics is strongly shaped by the activities of experts and professional actors with special knowledge of EU-specific rules, standards, semantics and institutional procedures. These EU professionals serve as important transmitters and brokers of European affairs in national contexts. They bundle and represent interests, provide information on EU policy proposals or support local and national organizations in their attempts of obtaining EU funding. In this way, these specialized actors have an important intermediary position between the “Eurocracy” and national citizenries as well as local addressees of EU policymaking. Building on classical and contemporary sociological discussions on the problem of professionalization in politics and on interview data the article analyzes the activities of these actors and scrutinizes what particular practices and strategies of interest mediation and policy transfer look like. What types of transmission and mediation can be found? Can EU professionals really be regarded as mediators and transmitters between European and local interests, or should they rather be seen as a relatively closed and self-referential group of specialists using their special competences mainly for their own sake and for positioning themselves within closed expert circles? Which difficulties and limitations can be seen with regard to practices and strategies of mediation in contemporary EU affairs?     

Desecuritization in China's Behavior towards Its Transboundary Rivers: the Mekong River,the Brahmaputra River,and the Irtysh and Ili Rivers

Fresh water has no substitute, and its availability has been declining sharply around the globe. In Asia, China's role as a multidirectional and transborder water provider is unmatched. Analysis of China's behavior towards its transboundary rivers is therefore pivotal. By examining three different case studies—the Mekong River in Southeast Asia, the Brahmaputra River in South Asia and the Irtysh and Ili Rivers in Central Asia—this article seeks to lay the theoretical groundwork for understanding China's behavior. It pits previously applied realist rationales against the more recent notion of desecuritization strategies and makes a case for the latter. While desecuritization implies non- or de-escalation, it does not necessarily mean genuine long-term cooperation. The future of Asia's shared waters may thus be a contentious one.     

Elections and Deceptions: An Experimental Study on the Behavioral Effects of Democracy

Traditionally, the virtue of democratic elections has been seen in their role as means of screening and sanctioning shirking public officials. This article proposes a novel rationale for elections and political campaigns considering that candidates incur psychological costs of lying, in particular from breaking campaign promises. These nonpecuniary costs imply that campaigns influence subsequent behavior, even in the absence of reputational or image concerns. Our lab experiments reveal that promises are more than cheap talk. They influence the behavior of both voters and their representatives. We observe that the electorate is better off when their leaders are elected democratically rather than being appointed exogenously—but only in the presence of electoral campaigns. In addition, we find that representatives are more likely to serve the public interest when their approval rates are high. Altogether, our results suggest that elections and campaigns confer important benefits beyond their screening and sanctioning functions.     

Internal or External Production and Satisfaction with the Chosen Sourcing in Danish Municipalities: Different Theoretical Explanations

Abstract

There is a large literature on both why local governments and public organisations choose internal or external production of services and what explains the performance of internal and external production. A range of different theories have been used to answer these questions. However, these studies show mixed results. In this study we investigate four theories: transaction cost economics, neoclassical economics, the resource-based view of strategy and institutional theory. Can these theories explain whether local governments choose internal or external production and can they explain the satisfaction with the internal and external production? Do the same variables explain the choice and the satisfaction? Based on a survey of four different service areas in Danish municipalities, it is shown that different theoretical variables explain the choice and satisfaction with the sourcing mode. Internal expertise is strongly related to the choice of internal or external production, whereas most transaction cost variables are unrelated to this choice. However, other variables such as supplier expertise and technological uncertainty are related to satisfaction with service production. The results corroborate the view that different variables are needed for explaining the performance of suppliers and the choice between internal and external suppliers. Furthermore, the results suggest that the study of local governments' sourcing may benefit from integrating theories focusing on internal expertise and markets. Studies may also benefit from integrating economic theories, which assume rationality, with institutional theory emphasising more unreflective and socially determined behaviour.     

Institutions and savings in developing and emerging economies

Domestic savings are an important prerequisite for capital formation and growth. In this paper we analyze a new channel through which institutions influence aggregate savings and economic development. Whereas research in the field of savings decisions concentrates largely on the level of the individual, the literature on institutions and growth as well as on aggregate savings formation focuses on the aggregate, national level. First, we develop a framework that brings together both lines of reasoning, arguing that institutions may influence the individual savings decision as well as national savings in aggregate. This potential for institutional quality to influence economic performance has been neglected so far. Second, we build upon the empirical literature on aggregate savings formation and provide results supporting our hypothesis that better economic institutions drive aggregate savings formation upwards. By contrast, we do not find such effects in the case of the political environment. Our findings are robust when checked against a number of changes in explanatory variables, estimation methods and the treatment of instruments.     

Global Development and Colonial Power: German Development Policy at Home and Abroad

The Oxford History of South Africa, Volume II, 1870–1966. Edited by Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson, Oxford University Press, London. 1971. Pp. xvi + 584. Index, bibliog., figs. £5.

Developing the Third World. The Experience of the Nineteen Sixties. Ronald Robinson (ed.) Cambridge University Press, London. 1971. Pp. x + 290. £4.20.

Public Finances in Malaya and Singapore. By C. T. Edwards. Australian National University Press. 1970. Pp. xi + 386. Index. $10.00 (Australian).

Productivity and Factor Proportions in Less Developed Countries. The Case of Industrial Firms in the Congo. By J. Gouverneur. Oxford University Press, London. 1970. Pp. xvii + 171. No Index. £2.50.

Technological Growth and Social Change: Achieving Modernization. By Stanley A. Hetzler. Routledge and Kegan Paul (International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction), London. 1969. Pp. x + 302. £2.25.

Planning Development. By Keith B. Griffin and John L. Enos, Addison‐Wesley Publishing Company London. 1970. Pp. xiii+262. £2.10.

Agricultural Problems: Some Technical Aspects. Nguyen Khac Vien (ed.). Vietnamese Studies Series, Hanoi. 1971. Pp. 286 (English edition). No price.

East Africa: its Peoples and Resources. W. T. W. Morgan (ed.). Oxford U.P., Nairobi. 1969. Pp. 312, 28 plates, 7 endpaper maps. £6.00 in U.K.

African Food Production Systems. Cases and Theory. P. F. M. McLoughlin (ed.). The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore. 1970. Pp. x + 318. Index. £4.75.

Turkish Economic, Social and Political Change. By Edwin J. Cohn. Praeger Special Studies. 1970. Pp. xiv + 185. £5.25.

Growth and Choice: Essays in Honour of U.N. Ghosal. Tapas Majumdar (ed.). Oxford University Press, London. 1970. Pp. xiv + 104. No Index. £1.70.