Reviews

National Unification and Economic Development in Vietnam, by Melanie Beresford. Macmillan, Basingstoke and London, 1989. xv + 296 pp. £45 hardback, £16.99 paperback. ISBN 0–333–48447–9 and 0–333–49729–5.

The Origins of the Vietnam War, by Anthony Short. Longman, London and New York, 1989. xvi+347pp. £8.95 paperback. ISBN0–582–49081–2.

Vietnam at War: The History: 1946–1975, by Phillip B. Davidson. Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1989. x + 838 pp. £13.99. ISBN 0–283–99935–7.

Vietnam Images: War and Representations, edited by Jeffrey Walsh and James Aulich. Macmillan, Basingstoke and London, 1989. xv + 224 pp. £9.99 paperback. ISBN 0–333–45801‐X.

Cambodge: Histoire et Enjeux 1945–1985, by Camille Scalabrino, Serge Thion, Marie‐Claire Orieux et al. L'Harmattan, Paris, 1986. 237 pp. ISBN 2–85802–671–8.

Affaires Cambodgiennes 1979–1989, by Camille Scalabrino, Serge Thio, Marie‐Claire Orieux et al. L'Harmattan, Paris, 1989. 256 pp. ISBN 2–7384–0317–4.

Visions and Heat: The Making of the Indonesian Revolution, by William H. Frederick. Ohio University Press, Athens, 1989. xxvi+339 pp., maps. $36.95 hardback, $17.95 paperback. ISBN 0–8214–0905–0 and 0–8214–0906–9.

Born in Fire: The Indonesian Struggle for Independence, edited by Colin Wild and Peter Carey. Ohio University Press (by arrangement with BBC Publications), Athens, 1988. xxvii+215 pp., notes, illus. $26.95 hardback, $12.95 paperback. ISBN 0–8214–0881‐X and 0–8214–0882–8.

The Army and Politics in Indonesia (revised edition), by Harold Crouch. Cornell University Press, Ithaca. NY and London, 1988. 384 pp. $10.95 paperback. ISBN 0–8014–9506–7.     

District magnitude and representation of the majority’s preferences: a comment and reinterpretation

Drawing on new data that combine recorded votes from the Swiss National Assembly with canton-level referendum results on identical legislative proposals, Portmann et al. (Public Choice 151:585–610, 2012) develop an innovative strategy to identify the effect of district magnitude on the relationship between representatives and their constituents. We replicate PSE’s central result and also estimate a related model that allows for the possibility of non-monotonicity in the relationship between district magnitude and representatives’ deviance from referendum median voters. Our results indicate that representatives elected in low-magnitude multi-member districts deviate from canton-level majorities less than either MPs from single-member districts or those from high-magnitude multi-member districts.     

“Who’s Gonna Take My Baby?”: Narratives of Creating Placement Plans Among Formerly Pregnant Inmates

Incarcerated pregnant women are nearly immediately separated from their babies after birth, which means they are forced to appoint a caregiver for their babies for the duration of their imprisonment. Little information is known about the caregiving plans of these women. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 35 women who were once pregnant and incarcerated in prisons across the United States, this research explores the ways in which these women construct and account for how they appointed caregivers. The narratives reveal how the women experienced stigma not only for being pregnant outside the societal boundaries that govern pregnancy but also over their placement plans.     

Top-Down Approaches to Joined-Up Government: Examining the Unintended Consequences of Weak Implementation

Since forming part of Blair’s modernization agenda in the UK, joined-up government has become a central ambition of governments in many industrialized countries. While there continues to be an absence of core methods and principles for achieving joined-up government, consensus has emerged around the effectiveness of top down approaches. Research has found that joining must happen at multiple levels and be supported by a range of cultural and structural interventions. This article presents findings from a study into the Australian Social Inclusion Agenda and explores the long-term and unintended consequences of joined-up initiatives that take a top-down approach.     

New Ontarians With Disabilities Act finally adopted

After several false starts, Ontario has passed legislation designed to remove barriers faced by disabled persons, including the barrier of stigma.