Book reviews

John P. Willerton, Patronage and Politics in the USSR. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xv+305 pp., $59.95, £40.00.

Michael Ellman & Vladimir Kontorovich, eds, The Disintegration of the Soviet Economic System. London and New York: Routledge, 1992, xv+281 pp., h/b £45.00., p/b £14.99.

Paul R. Josephson, Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991, xix+423 pp., $39.95.

Hélène Carrère D'Encausse, The Great Challenge: Nationalities and the Bolshevik State 1917–1930. Nancy Festinger, Trans., Richard Pipes, Foreword. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1991, xviii+262 pp., $39.95.

Niels Erik Rosenfeldt, Stalin's Secret Chancellery and the Comintern. University of Copenhagen, Institute of Slavonic and East European Studies, 1991. 116 pp.

Christoph Bluth, Soviet Strategic Arms Policy Before SALT. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, 317 pp., £40.00.

Roger E. Kanet, Deborah Nutter Miner & Tamara J. Resler, Soviet Foreign Policy in Transition. Cambridge University Press, 1992, xvi+308 pp., £40.00, $59.95.

M. A. Babkina, ed., New Political Parties and Movements in the Soviet Union. Commack, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 1991, 156 pp., $35.00.

S. Berglund & J. A. Dellenbrandt, eds., The New Democracies in Eastern Europe: Party Systems and Political Cleavages. Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991, xii + 237 pp., £39.95.

Gyorgy Csepeli & Antal Örkény, Ideology and Political Beliefs in Hungary: The Twilight of State Socialism. Trans., Brian McLean & Julianna Parti, London: Pinter, 1992, viii+148 pp., £35.00.     

Reagan's Welfare Reforms: Were the Program Savings Realized?

This paper provides a discussion of the impact of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 (OBRA) on AFDC caseloads and expenditures. Intervention analysis and regression analysis are used to examine whether OBRA resulted in either temporary or permanent changes in the levels of these variables. This study indicates that while OBRA may have resulted in a decline in AFDC caseloads, it did not have a significant effect on total AFDC expenditures.     

Application of less primer method to commercial kits

A modified PCR method is described. We examined the conditions of commercial kits including concentration of primer, amplification cycle number and annealing and extension time to obtain even PCR products as well accurate genotype analysis. In addition, we tried to arrange the ratio of primer composition in PowerPlex^® 16 system to improve the loci of high molecular and add two times of Taq Gold polymerase to decrease the extension time.The advantages of less primer method are good balance among loci, reproducibility and sensitivity.