Reviews

Neil Harding, Lenin's Political Thought, Vol. 2 Theory and Practice in the Socialist Revolution. London: Macmillan, 1981. ix + 387 pp. £15.00.

David Lane, Leninism, A Sociological Interpretation. Cambridge: C.U.P., 1981. x + 150 pp. £13.50 and £4.50.

Christel Lane, The Rites of Rulers. Ritual in Industrial Society—The Soviet Case. Cambridge University Press, 1981. 308 pp. £20.00, £6.95 paperback.

Alastair McAuley, Women's Work and Wages in the USSR. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981. xi + 228 pp. £18.00, $37.50.

Marie Lavigne (ed.), Travail et Monnaie en systemesocialiste. Paris: Economica, 1981. 310 pp.

Robert Campbell, Soviet Energy Technologies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. x + 268 pp. $22.50, £13.50.

Alfred Zauberman, Topics in Trade Coordination of Planned Economies. London and Basingstoke; The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1980. 108 pp. £15.00.

Helen Desfosses (ed.), Soviet Population Policy: Conflicts and Constraints. New York: Pergamon Press, 1981. xx + 210 pp. $24.50

Judith Pallot and Denis J. B. Shaw, Planning in the Soviet Union. London: Croom Helm, 1981. 303 pp. £16.95 (boards).

Peter Hruby, Fools and Heroes: The Changing Role of Communist Intellectuals in Czechoslovakia. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1980. xx + 265 pp. $32.00 & $18.75, £14.00 & £8.50.

Jiri Musil, Urbanization in Socialist Countries. White Plains, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1980 and London: Croom Helm, 1981. xii + 188 pp. £10.50.

Timothy J. Colton, Commisars, Commanders, and Civilian Authority: The Structure of Soviet Military Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979. viii + 365 pp. £15.00.     

Of legitimacy,legality and public affairs

This paper argues that legality is not enough and that sound public affairs underpins the legitimacy of a political system. It examines the impact of lost legitimacy on Tony Blair, President Bush and America's foreign policy. The author draws historical comparisons between Britain in the Middle East in the 1920s and the USA's problems today and suggests that the fundamental problem is the lack of legitimacy in the region's politics. The paper concludes by asserting that the legitimacy of the EU political system will be endangered while public understanding of its institutions remains limited. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

The Condition of Community Streets and Parks: A Comparison of Resident and Nonresident Evaluations

Practitioners and scholars are concerned that citizen surveys about community services are heavily influenced by respondents' opinions on other issues and by their sociodemographic backgrounds. We search for these biases by examining the extent to which citizen assessments of streets and parks in Iowa communities match the assessments of a nonresident. The citizens' ratings correlate significantly with the nonresident's ratings, indicating that citizen evaluations are not entirely the product of other influences. However, further analysis reveals some bias. In particular, streets are rated higher in wealthy towns, towns high in political efficacy, and towns where residents rate government services good overall. Parks are rated higher in towns where people come together to solve problems and in towns where people rate government services good overall. Even with these biases, our research indicates that citizen evaluations convey reasonably accurate information about the condition of community streets and parks.     

Microchemical identification of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB)

A new microcrystal test for the detection of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is described. The silver/copper reagent consists of an aqueous solution of 0.1 g of cupric nitrate and 0.1 g of silver nitrate in 10.0 mL water. While some crystals form upon evaporation of the reagent, the test forms distinctive crystals for GHB and does not form crystals with some commonly encountered controlled substances. The reagent was also tested against some controlled substances that have similar biological activity to GHB, including flunitrazepam, and some barbiturates. No crystals were observed with these compounds. A blind test was performed to determine if GHB could be discriminated from the other compounds. Two of ten unknowns were correctly identified as GHB--one solid, one liquid. One GHB sample was not identified as GHB and the remaining seven non-GHB samples were not identified as GHB. The reagent is therefore selective for GHB, but not extremely sensitive.     

Romantic Relationship Aggression and Attitudes in High School Students: The Role of Gender,Grade, and Attachment and Emotional Styles

Use of aggressive behaviors in adolescent romantic relationships, the endorsement of attitudes that promote such behaviors, and the extent to which attachment and emotional styles are related to these behaviors and attitudes were examined in 254 high school students. In general, aggressive behaviors and attitudes were not common. As expected girls were somewhat more likely to report being the perpetrator of physical aggression and boys were somewhat more likely to endorse the acceptance of aggression and dysfunctional sexual attitudes. For girls, a less secure relationship with best friends and lower levels of shame and guilt were related to the use of aggression in romantic relationships and endorsing less healthy attitudes about these relationships. For boys, externalizing responsibility for harm to others was related to using physical aggression in romantic relationships and lower levels of guilt and shame were related to the justification of sexual aggression. Intervention implications discussed include the need to employ programs that are grounded in the nature of adolescent relationships where aggression is more often mutual between partners, and the potential benefit of targeting emotional styles.     

Coercive diplomacy by the EU: the Iranian nuclear weapons crisis

The European Union has been the main international actor trying to contain the Iranian nuclear programme. In 2003, for the first time ever, the EU-3 adopted a coercive diplomatic approach vis-à-vis Iran. The current article begins with an analysis of the concept of coercive diplomacy before applying it to the Iranian case. In so doing, the article aims to make an interim assessment of the European (EU-3) effort.     

Development of a methodology for the standardisation and improvement of ‘Smartphone’ photography of patterned bruises and other cutaneous injuries

Human bite-mark analyses can play a prominent role in forensic case investigations, including those involving sexual assault. High-quality photographs routinely secure a link between a bite-mark and an individual's dentition. Access to around the clock forensic photography, however, is often limited, resulting in delay and/or missed opportunities to record valuable evidence. The emergence of Smartphone high-quality photographic technology now provides a previously unimagined opportunity to gather timely forensic photographic evidence. Problems can arise, however, due to the relatively poor quality of the photographs, as a result of many of those taking photographs having received little or no forensic photography training. This study compares unassisted photography with assisted photography, by a specifically developed camera application (App), to provide a standardised method for taking forensic photographs. An App, written in Java, was hosted on the Google Android Operating System, on a Samsung Galaxy SII Smartphone. Twenty-four volunteers participated in a study to photograph a pseudo bite-mark using three methods, (1) unassisted (as a control), (2) assisted by an ABFO No.2 right-angled photographic reference scale and (3) assisted by the App. The App, method (3), was shown to consistently outperform methods (1) and (2), demonstrating greater standardisation and precision (p < 0.001). Analysis of the data showed the extent to which acquiring an accurate photograph depends on the image being orthogonal to the camera. It appears likely that the relatively inaccurate photographs acquired by methods (1) and (2), were as a result of deviation from the plane, orthogonal to the bite-mark. Therefore, the App was successful in ensuring that the camera was both orthogonal and at an appropriate distance, relative to the bite-mark. Thus, the App enhanced the abilities of non-experts to acquire more accurate photographs and created the potential to significantly improve the quality of forensic photographs.     

Class struggle and the deproletarianisation of agricultural labour in Haryana (India)

This article considers the way in which labour attachment is theorised, both in the 1950s Agricultural Labour Enquiries, and subsequently in the work of Rudra, Bardhan, and Breman. Common to all these texts is a positive conceptualisation of attached labour, and consequently the elimination of its element of unfreedom. Instead, the relation is presented in terms of a materially reciprocal exchange between landholder and worker, a transaction which from the viewpoint of the latter corresponds to a much sought‐after form of job insurance or subsistence guarantee. By contrast, it is suggested here that attachment constitutes de‐proletarianisation undertaken by capital in the course of class struggle, and that in Haryana the agricultural work‐force strongly dislikes this kind of employment.