Book reviews

Vernon Hewitt, The New International Politics of South Asia (Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1997), xxxvi +305 pp., ISBN 0–7190–5121–5 (hb), 0–7190–5122–3 (pb)

Ruth Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives (Macmillan, London, 1997), 284 pp., ISBN 0–333–53488–3

Martin Bull and Martin Rhodes (eds), Crisis and Transition in Italian Politics (Frank Cass, London, 1997), 253 pp., ISBN 0–7146–4816–7 (hb), 0–7146–4366–1 (pb)

Linda McDougall, Westminster Women (Vintage, London, 1998), 215 pp., ISBN 0–09–927405–1     

“Una tercera lectura”: the cinematic reader and the cult of virility in Manuel Puig's El beso de la mujer araña (1976)

In El beso de la mujer araña, Manuel Puig encourages a “tercera lectura,” informed by both cinema and literature. He creates a cinematic language reinforced by the spirit of “synthesis” and then incorporates a conceptual discourse which is beyond cinema because of the “límites de atención” of a “lector cinematográfico.” Puig expects readers to draw their own conclusions about the themes which emerge. I argue here that both the themes and aesthetic of the novel can be read as a challenge to the form and content of a literary and filmic “cult of virility.”     

Stability of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid using the Quantisal collection device

This article details the stability of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid during collection, extraction and storage. Oral fluid is being increasingly used as the specimen of choice for the detection of drug use in various applications. Studies to determine the extraction efficiency of THC from the collection buffer and stability under various laboratory storage conditions were carried out. THC was extracted from the collection pad and buffer with an average efficiency over 80% and was stable in Quantisal oral fluid extraction buffer when stored at refrigerated temperatures. Fluorescent lighting caused THC losses of over 50%, however the presence of the pad reduced the loss. In the dark, the loss of THC at room temperature was approximately 20% over 14 days. When stored with the serum separators in place, THC losses were significant. After 3 days, THC concentration was reduced by almost 30%, and after 14 days, 60% of the drug was lost and the losses were not concentration dependent.     

Potency Trends of Δ9‐THC and Other Cannabinoids in Confiscated Cannabis Preparations from 1993 to 2008*

Abstract: The University of Mississippi has a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to carry out a variety of research activities dealing with cannabis, including the Potency Monitoring (PM) program, which provides analytical potency data on cannabis preparations confiscated in the United States. This report provides data on 46,211 samples seized and analyzed by gas chromatography‐flame ionization detection (GC‐FID) during 1993–2008. The data showed an upward trend in the mean Δ⁹‐tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ⁹‐THC) content of all confiscated cannabis preparations, which increased from 3.4% in 1993 to 8.8% in 2008. Hashish potencies did not increase consistently during this period; however, the mean yearly potency varied from 2.5–9.2% (1993–2003) to 12.0–29.3% (2004–2008). Hash oil potencies also varied considerably during this period (16.8 ± 16.3%). The increase in cannabis preparation potency is mainly due to the increase in the potency of nondomestic versus domestic samples.     

Regulatory competition in European company law

States have customarily tended to compete with one another. Not always, however, is this tendency, or the underlying methods put to use, obvious. That states (provincial divisions in the US) were competing to attract incorporations by relaxing their regulatory standards, couldn’t be seriously observed and highlighted until mid-1970s. Today, a few would doubt the existence of regulatory competition in corporate law in the US. In this paper, the author examines the issue whether the EU is (likely to be) engaged in regulatory competition in the area of company law. Answering the question in affirmative, the author proceeds to examine the strength of the race to the bottom and the race to the top theories, as developed and argued in the US, for the European setting. Since the legal systems of Member States of the EU have certain very disparate “core values” along which those systems have historically developed, relaxation of standards in the EU would take place against different variables. Because of the multitude of variables, comparable variables are unlikely to yield comparable results; either of the race theories is unlikely to satisfactorily predict the regulatory behaviour of EU Member States. Instead, since “laxation” in respect of one variable would be met by “optimisation” in respect of the other, there is likely to be simultaneous races to the top and to the bottom among the EU Member States.     

Interest Rates and Investment in East Asia: An Empirical Evaluation of Various Financial Liberalisation Hypotheses

The article attempts to shed light on the appropriate interest rate policy in the process of economic development. To this end, we examine whether higher interest rates lead to higher investment (and growth) in four East Asian countries. We find that the investment rate went up with real interest rates up to 9 per cent in all four countries but started declining at still higher interest rates in two of the countries. Further, a banking crisis occurred in each of the three countries for which the real interest rates exceeded 9 per cent. This evidence rejects the ‘neo-structuralist’ argument. Nor does it support unbridled financial liberalisation. Yet, it provides only limited support to Stiglitz's case for ‘mild financial repression (real interest rates near zero)’ since reducing real interest rates from say, 6 to 3 or 0 per cent would have reduced investment. The optimum policy seems to be closest to McKinnon's ‘restrained financial liberalisation’ policy, that is, liberalisation with a moderate upper limit (about 6 or 7 per cent) on the real interest rates.     

Uber Über regulation? Regulatory change following the emergence of new technologies in the taxi market

Can emerging technologies transform not only markets, but also foster new regulatory change mechanisms? In the context of prevailing theories of regulatory change, this article explores the extent to which an interest‐based explanation can account for the regulatory responses toward emerging Transportation Network Companies (TNCs). Based on a primary cross‐city analysis of the 40 largest cities in the United States, the study found that although the existence of ex ante interest groups indeed somewhat limited the extent of ex post regulatory acceptance of TNCs, regulators seemed to prefer the newcomers over existing incumbents and approved TNCs in 77.5 percent of the examined cities, rarely pursuing harsh enforcement even when TNCs operated illegally. The research attempts to explain this intriguing phenomenon by extending the interest‐based approach to account for the key role played by “technological regulatory entrepreneurs.” The entrepreneurs bridged collective action barriers by becoming the central agent that managed, and reaped the benefits of, the collective action, by lowering the organizational costs and by disseminating information effectively and turning consumers into political campaigners, thus successfully promoting regulatory change.     

A cross-cultural study of self-image: Indian,American, Australian,and Irish adolescents

Planning for research and youth welfare programs in every developed and developing country is essential if man envisages the normalization of sick adolescents. Adolescent unit programs are needed in India, as in all parts of the United States, and should be an integral part of medical institutes in every university. Actually, the problem of generation gap, ego identity, and subcultures (i.e., peer group pressure) creating negative attitudes in youth is one of the most explosive problems that behavioral scientists face in the modern era. The present project is an attempt to study the self-image, ego strength, self-esteem, or level of psychological well-being of a normal adolescent group of Indians and to compare this with youth of three other nationalities-American, Irish, and Australian. To measure the self-esteem of an individual, 11 areas of conflict including impulse control, emotional tone, body and self-image, social attitudes, morals, sexual attitudes, family relations, external mastery, vocational and educational goals, psychopathology, and superior adjustment have been examined. The Hindi version of the Offer Self-image Questionnaire has been used. The sample consists of 400 boys and 400 girls, ages 14 to 18, of middle class socioeconomic status; the educational level is high school/intermediate. It is concluded that American and Australian adolescents, in general, have higher self-esteem or ego strength than do Indian and Irish adolescents, respectively.Received her Ph.D. in psychology from the Banaras Hindu University in India. Since 1974 she has been Chairman of the Department of Psychology at Banaras Hindu University. In 1972, she was selected, under the Social Science Exchange program, to spend one year at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute and the Psychiatric and Psychosomatic Institute of Michael Reese Hospital. Her interests are clinical, social, and psychological aspects of crime and delinquency, and cross-cultural studies of adolescents.