bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Longitudinal patterns in flathead catfish relative abundance and length at age within a large river: effects of an urban gradient
Authors: Paukert Craig P. , Makinster Andrew S.
Published: May 2008

We investigated the spatial variation of flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) relative abundance and growth in the 274 km long Kansas River to determine if population dynamics of catfish are related to urbanization. Electrofishing was conducted at 462 random sites throughout the river in summer, 2005–2006 to collect fish. Relative abundance of age 1 fish (≤200 mm), subadult (>200–400 mm) and adult fish (>400 mm) ranged from 0.34 to 14.67 fish h−1, mean length at age 1 was 165 (range: 128–195) mm total length (TL) and mean length at age 3 was 376 mm TL (range: 293–419 mm TL). The proportion of land use within 200 m of the river edge was between 0 and 0.54 urban. River reaches with high relative abundance of age 1 flathead catfish had high relative abundance of subadult and adult catfish. River reaches with fast flathead catfish growth to age 1 had fast growth to age 3. High urban land use and riprap in the riparian area were evident in river reaches near the heavily populated Kansas City and Topeka, Kansas, USA. Reaches with increased number of log jams and islands had decreased riparian agriculture. Areas of low urbanization had faster flathead catfish growth (r = 0.67, p = 0.005). Relative abundance of flathead catfish was higher in more agricultural areas (r = −0.57, p = 0.02). Changes in land use in riverine environments may alter population dynamics of a fish species within a river. Spatial differences in population dynamics need to be considered when evaluating riverine fish populations. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The adoption of radical manufacturing technologies and firm survival
Authors: Sinha Rajiv K. , Noble Charles H.
Published: May 2008

The emergence of dramatically innovative, or radical, new manufacturing technologies can force pivotal and life‐threatening decisions for industry competitors. These technologies can represent a huge cost for adopting firms, but may also offer the chance to achieve competitive advantage through superior manufacturing. While prior research has considered a range of production process decisions (e.g., JIT, mass customization) and outcomes for end‐product technologies, little attention has been given to adoption decisions relative to core manufacturing technologies. This study examines an industry's adoption of major manufacturing technologies over several decades and demonstrates that two groups of contingencies related to adoption (e.g., timing and cumulative effects) have a significant impact on firm performance. Based on a sample of over 1,000 firms, the results provide insights into the effects of adoption timing and ‘manufacturing technology bundles’ on firm survival. We also find that adoption of manufacturing technologies prior to the inflection point of the estimated Bass diffusion curve for each technology leads to significant reduction in firm mortality. Thus, we are able to demonstrate the ability of the Bass model to predict the survival outcomes of firms facing manufacturing technology adoption decisions. The strategic implications of these pivotal decisions are considered. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bioconcentrations of metals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb) in earthworms (Eisenia fetida), inoculated in municipal sewage sludge: Do earthworms pose a possible risk of terrestrial food chain contamination?
Authors: Suthar Surindra , Singh Sushma
Published: May 2008

Efforts have been made to evaluate the possible risks of metal bioaccumulation in composting earthworms during vermicomposting of hazardous wastes, e.g., sewage sludge. The sewage sludge was diluted by mixing cow dung in different proportions, and vermicomposted sludge as well as inoculated earthworms were analyzed for metal (Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb) contents. The sludge processed by worms showed a significant reduction in concentration of metals, Cu (29.4–51.6%), Fe (13.1–19.9%), Zn (15.2–25.8%), and Pb (4.6–46.9%), at the end. A considerable concentration of metals, total Cu (16.7–27.6 mg kg−1), total Fe (42.9–89.8 mg kg−1), total Zn (5.85–75.0 mg kg−1), and total Pb (1.79–12.4 mg kg−1), in composting earthworms was also recorded. The greater values of bioconcentration factors for metals suggested the possible risk of entering contaminants in higher food chains; since, earthworms are near to the terrestrial food chain, they can potentially mediate metal transfer from soil to a range of predators, including birds. Therefore, feasibility of vermitechnology in hazardous waste recycling needs close attention in respect to possible risk of environmental contamination. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2009.
Toxicity of perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid to plants and aquatic invertebrates
Authors: Li Mei‐Hui
Published: May 2008

Acute toxicities of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) were tested on four freshwater species and three plant species. PFOS was more toxic than PFOA for all species tested in this study. Similar time‐response patterns of PFOS and PFOA toxicity were observed for each tested species. Values of the 48‐h LC50 of PFOS for all test species ranged from 27 to 233 mg/L and values of the 96‐h LC50 for three of the species ranged from 10 to 178 mg/L. Values of the 48‐h LC50 of PFOA for all test species ranged from 181 to 732 mg/L and values of the 96‐h LC50 for three of the species ranged from 337 to 672 mg/L. The most sensitive freshwater species to PFOS was green neon shrimp (Neocaridina denticulate) with a 96‐h LC50 of 10 mg/L. Of the aquatic organisms tested, the aquatic snail (Physa acuta) always has the highest resistance to PFOS or PFOA toxicity over each exposure period. Both PFOS and PFOA had no obvious adverse effect on seed germination for all three plant species. Five‐day EC50 of root elongation was more sensitive to LC50 of seed germination in this study. Based on EC10, EC50, and NOECs, the 5‐day root elongation sensitivity of test plants to both PFOS and PFOA was in the order of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) > pakchoi (Brassica rapa chinensis) > cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Based on the results of this study and other published literature, it is suggested that current PFOS and PFOA levels in freshwater may have no acute harmful ecological impact on the aquatic environment. However, more research on the long‐term ecological effects of PFOS and PFOA on aquatic fauna are needed to provide important information to adequately assess ecological risk of PFOS and PFOA. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol, 2009.
Cognitive radio adaptation using particle swarm optimization
Authors: Zhao Zhijin , Xu Shiyu , Zheng Shilian , Shang Junna
Published: May 2008

One of the basic capabilities of cognitive radio is to adapt the radio parameters according to the changing environment and user needs. This paper proposes a new adaptation method which uses particle swarm optimization (PSO) to optimize cognitive radio parameters given a set of objectives. The procedure of the proposed method is presented and multicarrier system is used for simulation analysis. Experimental results show that the proposed method performs far better than genetic algorithm (GA)‐based adaptation method in terms of convergence speed, converged fitness values, and stability. The proposed method can also provide the tradeoffs of the objective functions, and the resulting parameter configuration is consistent with the weights of the objective functions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Trade and Growth
Authors: Taylor Lance , Darity William A.
Published: May 2008

The National Economic Association introduced the W. Arthur Lewis Distinguished Lecture series in December 1985 at the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings in New York City. The Lewis Lecture is named in honor of the 1979 Nobel Laureate in Economics, much of whose research has been devoted to the problem of Third World economic development. In the same spirit, the Lewis Lectures are intended to explore the themes of global inequality, Third World poverty, and prospects and possibilities for change. The inaugural Lewis address was delivered by Lance Taylor, professor of economics and nutrition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Taylor, an immensely creative economist, has led contemporary development economists in the analysis of disparities in the structural relationships between Northern (that is, more-developed) and Southern (that is, less-developed) countries. Taylor's subject matter, “Trade and Growth,” constituted both a provocative assessment of the state of knowledge in this area and a compelling indictment of the insights offered by conventional economics. Taylor's address, presented December 28, 1985, provides a sterling beginning to what promises to be an important lecture series.
Inequality in Metropolitan Industrial Revenue Bond Programs
Authors: Squires Gregory D.
Published: May 2008

Industrial revenue bonds (IRBs) have become an increasingly popular, though expensive and controversial, tool of economic development at the state and local levels. That controversy has focused on the economic impact of IRBs: Whether or not they meet the intended goals of creating jobs and stabilizing the tax base of local communities, and whether the benefits are worth the costs. Though IRBs are often justified, at least in part, as a particularly useful program for older, urban, minority communities, little research has been done on the participation of racial minorities and women in IRB programs. This article examines Chicago's IRB program and finds that minorities have not participated equitably. Racial minorities and women are underutilized in many firms receiving this form of publicly subsidized financial assistance, and minority-owned businesses receive a disproportionately small share of the loans. Policy recommendations are offered to assure equitable participation of racial minorities and women in IRB programs.
Market Structure and Minority Presence: Black-Owned Firms in Manufacturing
Authors: Woolf Arthur G.
Published: May 2008

This study uses a market structure framework to analyze the presence of black-owned businesses in manufacturing sectors of the U.S. economy in 1972. Tobit analysis reveals that black-owned firms tend to be concentrated in those industries with a relatively large small-business presence. High advertising expenditures are a significant barrier to black presence in a given industry. The amount of government purchases from an industry is found to have no significant relationship to black presence.
Nonwhite Migration 1960–1970: The Role of Employment Opportunities
Authors: Latos Charles J.
Published: May 2008

This article investigates the economic determinants of variations in nonwhite population growth rates attributable to migration in northern metropolitan areas during the 1960s. A simultaneous equations model is developed in which a nonwhite employment growth indicator is specified as a function of variables theoretically independent of concurrent nonwhite migration. Unlike prior studies of nonwhite migration, the migration equation does not employ a migrant stock indicator. The chain migration effect is linked directly to nonwhite employment growth. Variations in nonwhite net migration rates are found to be directly and significantly associated with nonwhite employment levels and nonwhite employment growth and negatively associated with income levels. Nonwhite employment growth is found positively and significantly associated with the growth of employment opportunities in low-ranked occupations, the growth of white employment in high-ranked occupations and prior nonwhite migration.
Labor Force Competition and the Black-White Wage Gap
Authors: Defreitas Gregory
Published: May 2008

Have the increasing numbers of women and immigrants in the U.S. labor force adversely affected the relative earnings of black men? A recent article in this journal argued that they have, based on empirical analysis of 1970 census data. The present study begins with a critique of both the theoretical assumptions and the empirical methods of this earlier article. A regression analysis of 1980 census data is then undertaken, which indicates that recent immigration has not had a negative impact on the relative wages of central-city black men. The findings also suggest that while higher rates of female labor force participation are statistically associated with lower black-white wage ratios, this effect is limited to teenagers.
The Black Dropout Rate and the Black Youth Unemployment Rate: A Granger-Causal Analysis
Authors: Magura Michael , Shapiro Edward
Published: May 2008

The high unemployment rate of black high school graduates can create the perception that a diploma is of little value and encourage dropping-out of school. Black youth who do drop out are less employable and further push up the black youth unemployment rate. This raises a question: Is the high dropout rate of black youth due to their high unemployment rate or is their high unemployment rate due to their high dropout rate? A study of this question using the definition of Granger-causality finds that it is the high unemployment rate which causes the high dropout rate rather than the opposite.
Postschool Education and Training: Accessible to All?
Authors: Adams Arvil V. , Mangum Stephen L. , Wirtz Philip W.
Published: May 2008

This article examines knowledge and skill development during early adulthood when the individual has severed ties with formal education and entered the world of work. Focusing on a cohort of young men from the National Longitudinal Surveys, the paper examines the economic and social forces influencing participation in various forms of postschool education and training. A recursive model is used to explore skill development patterns over the lifecycle. Attention is focused on the role of early human capital development and its influence on the cost and incentives for subsequent skill development in the adult working years. The findings point to the cumulative nature of skill development over the lifecycle with some important implications for efforts to reduce economic and social inequalities for blacks and whites.
Consumer Demand by Black Americans
Authors: Milley Donald J.
Published: May 2008

This article investigates the consumption patterns of black Americans for five different commodity groups: food, housing, clothing, health care, and transportation. The black consumer's demand for these products is hypothesized as describable by the linear expenditure system. The system allows the investigation of changing relative commodity prices and income. The system also establishes a basic consumption bundle as an estimable parameter of the system. The basic bundle allows for changes in composition due to increased product familiarity, habit formation, and emulation by black consumers. Product familiarity and habit-formation play a role in determining the black consumer's demand for the commodities food, housing, and clothing. This demand is also partially determined by the consumer's “emulation” of consumption standards established by society in general. The article is not a comparison study of black-white differences in consumer behavior; however, the possible existence of an emulation effect in black consumer behavior suggests an interrelation of black-white consumer welfare which might fruitfully be studied by future researchers.
FGF21 attenuates lipolysis in human adipocytes – A possible link to improved insulin sensitivity
Authors: Arner Peter , Pettersson Amanda , Mitchell Pamela J. , Dunbar James D. , Kharitonenkov Alexei , Rydén Mikael
Published: May 2008

Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) is active in murine adipocytes and has beneficial metabolic effects in animal models of type 2 diabetes mellitus. We assessed whether FGF21 influences lipolysis in human adipocytes and 3T3‐L1 cells. FGF21 had no short‐time effect (h) while a 3‐day incubation with FGF21 attenuated hormone‐stimulated lipolysis. FGF21 did not influence the mRNA expression of genes involved in regulating lipolysis, but significantly reduced the expression of the lipid droplet‐associated phosphoprotein perilipin without affecting differentiation. Via reduced release of fatty acids into the circulation, the anti‐lipolytic effect could be a mechanism through which FGF21 promotes insulin sensitivity in man.
Ameliorating Majority Decisiveness through Expression of Preference Intensity
Authors: Baharad Eyal , Nitzan Shmuel
Published: May 2008

In pairwise voting, when a simple majority rule produces a winner, that winner is robust to the minority's preferences. The typical means of protecting the minority from the decisiveness of the majority is by increasing the required majority or by augmenting the simple majority rule with constitutional constraints. In the former case the required majority q becomes larger than one-half, and this implies that the q-majority rule becomes biased in favor of one of the alternatives, usually the status quo. In the latter case the augmented rule becomes biased in favor of the minority. The main issue examined in this paper is whether the amelioration of majority decisiveness can be attained by unbiased voting rules that allow some restricted expression of preference intensities. Our results clarify that the use of scoring rules provides a positive answer to the above question when voters resort to variable degrees of coordinated strategic voting. The results are illustrated in the special cases of the plurality and the Borda rules.
Equal Votes, Equal Money: Court-Ordered Redistricting and Public Expenditures in the American States
Authors: Ansolabehere Stephen , Gerber Alan , Snyder Jim
Published: May 2008

Court-ordered redistricting in the mid-1960s eradicated severe disparities in the populations of U.S. state legislative districts. We examine the geographic distribution of money by states to counties. Cross-sectional analysis shows that counties with relatively more legislativeseats per person prior to redistricting received relatively more transfers from the state per person. Over time, counties that lost legislative seats subsequently received a smaller share of state funds per capita. We calculate that population equalization significantly altered the flow of state transfers to counties, diverting approximately $7 billion annually from formerly overrepresented to formerly underrepresented counties, an effect missed by past studies. For those concerned with the design of democratic institutions around the world today, the American experience provides clear evidence of the political consequences of unequal representation.
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick? Veterans in the Political Elite and the American Use of Force
Authors: Gelpi Christopher , Feaver Peter D.
Published: May 2008

Other research has shown (1) that civilians and the military differ in their views about when and how to use military force; (2) that the opinions of veterans track more closely with military officers than with civilians who never served in the military; and (3) that U.S. civil–military relations shaped Cold War policy debates. We assess whether this opinion gap “matters” for the actual conduct of American foreign policy. We examine the impact of the presence of veterans in the U.S. political elite on the propensity to initiate and escalate militarized interstate disputes between 1816 and 1992. As the percentage of veterans serving in the executive branch and the legislature increases, the probability that the United States will initiate militarized disputes declines. Once a dispute has been initiated, however, the higher the proportion of veterans, the greater the level of force the United States will use in the dispute.
On the Vote-Purchasing Behavior of Incumbent Governments
Authors: DAHLBERG MATZ , JOHANSSON EVA
Published: May 2008

In this paper we investigate whether there are any tactical motives behind the distribution of grants from central to lower-level governments. We use a temporary grant program that is uniquely suitable for testing theories of vote-purchasing behavior of incumbent governments. The temporary grant program differs from traditional intergovernmental grants in several aspects, most importantly in the sovereign decision-making power given to the incumbent central government. We find support for the hypothesis that the incumbent government used the grant program under study to win votes. In particular, we find strong support for the Lindbeck–Weibull/Dixit–Londregan model, in which parties distribute transfers to regions where there are many swing voters. This result is statistically as well as economically significant. We do not, however, find any support for the model that predicts that the incumbent government transfers money to its own supporters.
Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy to the Inattentive Public
Authors: BAUM MATTHEW A.
Published: May 2008

This study argues that, due to selective political coverage by the entertainment-oriented, soft news media, many otherwise politically inattentive individuals are exposed to information about high-profile political issues, most prominently foreign policy crises, as an incidental by-product of seeking entertainment. I conduct a series of statistical investigations examining the relationship between individual media consumption and attentiveness to several recent high-profile foreign policy crisis issues. For purposes of comparison, I also investigate several non-foreign crisis issues, some of which possess characteristics appealing to soft news programs and others of which lack such characteristics. I find that information about foreign crises, and other issues possessing similar characteristics, presented in a soft news context, has indeed attracted the attention of politically uninvolved Americans. The net effect is a reduced disparity in attentiveness to select high-profile political issues across different segments of the public.
Coordination and Policy Moderation at Midterm
Authors: MEBANE WALTER R. , SEKHON JASJEET S.
Published: May 2008

Eligible voters have been coordinating their turnout and vote decisions for the House of Representatives in midterm elections. Coordination is a noncooperative rational expectations equilibrium. Stochastic choice models estimated using individual-level data from U.S. National Election Studies surveys of the years 1978–1998 support the coordinating model and reject a nonstrategic model. The coordinating model shows that many voters have incentives to change their votes between the presidential year and midterm after learning the outcome of the presidential election. But this mechanism alone does not explain the size of midterm cycles. The largest source of loss of support for the president's party at midterm is a regular pattern in which the median differences between the voters' ideal points and the parties' policy positions have become less favorable for the president's party than they were at the time of the presidential election (nonvoters show the same pattern). The interelection changes are not consistent with the theory of surge and decline.
More Than a Historian: The Political and Economic Thought of Charles A. Beard By Clyde W. Barrow. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2000. 289p. $39.95.
Authors: O'Brien Ruth
Published: May 2008

Clyde Barrow's More Than a Historian provides a fascinating intellectual history of Charles Beard, a political scientist whom he places in the “pantheon of thinkers that most scholars no longer read” (p. xvi). With 42 books, scores of coauthored books, and hundreds of articles and book reviews, Beard can be only characterized as amazingly prolific. Yet the only book that still resonates in political science and American history is An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution (1913). Barrow's history of Beard gives us ample reason finally to read it or read it again.
At the Heart of Freedom: Feminism, Sex, and Equality. By Drucilla Cornell. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. 254p. $14.95 paper.
Authors: Binion Gayle
Published: May 2008

Drucilla Cornell has two goals: Pinpoint equal freedom as the core of sexual equality and make the case for the equal rights of gays and lesbians. Interwoven within these themes is a case for sexual freedom itself, for men and women. With erudite references to a wide multidisciplinary swath of literature, she succeeds in hammering home these concerns and in demanding that the sociolegal order reform its policies affecting sexuality, reproduction, and definitions of family. In these respects, this is a valuable study of how the United States specifically and other societies referentially fall short of what Christine Littleton calls making sex “cost free.” Cornell's book, which in the subjects and issues it analyzes covers very familiar territory, is intriguing for a very different reason. It is one of a very few works in radical feminist thought that is fundamentally about employing the tenets of classical liberalism, if not libertarianism, in the service of progressive social change. In contrast with the paradigms of modal feminism, which address social structures and connectedness, and which are concerned predominantly with equality, this work unabashedly focuses on the individual and stresses the freedom of each as a sexual being.
Appeasement in International Politics. By Stephen R. Rock. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2000. 237p. $29.95.
Authors: Cortright David
Published: May 2008

Since Neville Chamberlain's concessions to Adolph Hitler in Munich in 1938, appeasement has become a term of disrepute. The word is almost an epithet, denoting weakness in the face of aggression. Generations of scholars and policymakers have learned the lesson that appeasement emboldens the aggressor and makes war more likely. Academic attention has focused instead on deterrence theory and the role of coercion and compellence as key elements of international politics.
Presidential Transitions: From Politics to Practice. By John P. Burke. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000. 437p. $65.00.
Authors: Borrelli Mary Anne
Published: May 2008

Scholars have long been participant-observers in presidential transitions, which provide extraordinary opportunities to refine their understanding of continuity and change in the presidency. Political science, more generally, has benefited from this engagement. Whether we read the elegant memoranda of Richard Neustadt or the advice-laden briefing papers of the White House 2001 Project, we gain a new appreciation for the challenges confronting a chief executive who must build an administration, establish a policy agenda, and achieve demonstrable political results within a few short months of the election. In Presidential Transitions, From Politics to Practice, John Burke makes a notable contribution to our knowledge of these events, both as historical drama and as political developments. Quite simply, this book can be enjoyed for its narrative and appreciated for its analysis by those interested in presidential institutions and policymaking.
Elections and Democratization in Ukraine By Sarah Birch. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. 212p. $65.00.
Authors: Ishiyama John T.
Published: May 2008

Elections and Democratization in Ukraine represents a valuable contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of party systems development in postcommunist politics. Unlike many volumes that rely on largely anecdotal evidence and narrative, this book is extremely well organized and systematic. There is a clear theoretical structure, and systematic evidence is employed to test specific hypotheses. Using some of the classic works on the development of party systems and relations between parties and voters to provide a theoretical framework, the author derives a set of hypotheses about characteristics that might affect voter choices over time.
The Cunning of Unreason: Making Sense of Politics. By John Dunn. New York: Basic Books, 2000. 401p. $20.00.
Authors: Urbinati Nadia
Published: May 2008

If I had to talk about this book to my students, I would begin by describing its cover. The image of the upside down Capitol with the cupola hanging over the key word of the title (Cunning) invites the reader to peruse this fascinating and melancholic book as a species of inverted Hegelianism. This is a book about regret. It regrets what seems out of reach—politics as “something … uniquely courageous, direct, and even potentially effective in its assault on the misery and injustice of the great bulk of collective human life” (pp. ix–x). Its perspective is realistic but contains a glimmer of hope. Dunn's realism is ateleological and open to a moderate voluntarism; it conveys a disillusioned pessimism along with the belief that our politics can be less corrupt and cynical. Hope counterbalances the inexorable fatalism of reason. Its source is acceptance of the limits of human rationality, an endogenous fact unamendable to History's infallibility. Hope is the daughter of judgmental fallibility, the hunch that there is “room for maneuver” (pp. 347–8).
The Moral of the Story: Literature and Public Ethics. Edited by Henry T. Edmondson III. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000. 272p. $75.00 cloth, $24.95 paper. Shakespeare's Political Realism: The English History Plays. By Tim Spiekerman. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. 208p. $16.95 paper.
Authors: Fishman Ethan
Published: May 2008

As their scholarship indicates, Henry Edmondson and Tim Spiekerman share two basic assumptions: There exist certain enduring issues of politics, such as the nature of social justice and the legitimacy of power, and authors of fiction, drama, and poetry who write with knowledge and sensitivity about the human condition often will have something significant to say about them.
Theories of Comparative Political Economy: New Paradigms By Ronald H. Chilcote. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000. 316p. $28.00 paper.
Authors: Petras James
Published: May 2008

Ronald Chilcote is a leading radical political economist, and this book is a fine illustration of his well-earned reputation. It is a comprehensive survey of most of the major writers and themes that have dominated the literature on liberal and radical political economy, organized historically and by schools of thought around key concepts: class, state, imperialism, and transitions. The core of the book focuses on these four conceptual areas.
Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity: The Secular Religious Impasse By Asher Cohen and Bernard Susser. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. 167p. $36.00. The Politics of Religion and the Religion of Politics: Looking at Israel By Ira Sharkansky. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000. 161p. $40.00.
Authors: Yishai Yael
Published: May 2008

Religion has played a prominent role in Israel's history. The country was founded in 1948 with a declaration of being a Jewish state, not only a state for the Jews. This definition has been the source of two thorny problems. The first involves the relations between state and religion, the second the relationship between two communities, namely, the secular majority and the religious minority. The two books under review tackle these problems in a fascinating manner. They complement each other by presenting different aspects of the intricate religious issue in Israel. They also contradict each other by offering conflicting conclusions based on historical and contemporary analysis.
Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia By Timothy J. Colton. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. 324p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper. Unexpected Outcomes: Electoral Systems, Political Parties, and Representation in Russia Robert G. Moser. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001. 183p. $19.95.
Authors: Oates Sarah
Published: May 2008

As the Soviet regime recedes farther into the past, two types of scholars are now working hard to put the post-Soviet experience in comparative context. Some are those who built their careers on a study of the Soviet Union and have now significantly expanded on their work, while another group comprises scholars of the post-Soviet regime who completed their dissertations after the collapse of the Communist regime. These two books represent some of the best of both of these groups, and both are important in their scope in bringing Russian politics into one of the most important fields in politics, namely, that of elections, parties, and voters.
After Politics: The Rejection of Politics in Contemporary Liberal Philosophy. By Glen Newey. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 253p. $68.00.
Authors: Chambers Simone
Published: May 2008

This is a very smart book that comes to some very questionable conclusions. Glen Newey takes issue with contemporary liberal philosophy on two counts: Not only does it fail to address the “real world of politics,” but it actually aims at the suppression of politics. Included in the list of those guilty of suppressing politics and failing to provide “philosophical reflection on politics—at least not on politics as it is” (p. 15) are John Rawls, Jürgen Habermas, Brian Barry, Joseph Raz, Michael Walzer, Michael Sandel, Will Kymlicka, Amy Gutmann, and others. Clearly, a great deal hangs on what Newey means by “politics as it is,” and I will say at the outset that I found his definition wholly unconvincing. But along the way, Newey says some very intelligent things about the leading lights of liberal political philosophy. The book has two layers. In the first, Newey takes up particular philosophical arguments embedded in various liberal theories. At this level he shows us his considerable analytic skills in carefully argued, if somewhat technical, investigations of philosophical weaknesses. So, for example, his discussion of moral internalism and its problems is very good, as is the discussion of neutralist side-constraint as an insufficient reason requirement. Anyone interested in really looking under the hood of contemporary liberal philosophy can get something out of this book. But when Newey moves to the second layer, he tries to tie all his various arguments together under one big claim: the rejection of politics claim, and this is problematic.
Encountering Tragedy: Rousseau and the Project of Democratic Order. By Steven Johnston. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999. 189p. $29.95.
Authors: Marso Lori Jo
Published: May 2008

Rousseau is known as both exalted democrat and father of totalitarianism. Steven Johnston's book demonstrates that the two interpretations cannot be separated. Johnston evaluates Rousseau's texts hoping that the “costs of Rousseau's virtuous republic, many of them hidden or muted, can be reckoned alongside its accomplishments” (p. x.). Not surprisingly, Rousseau's accomplishments are called into question. This elegantly written and forcefully argued book claims that order is the essential ingredient in Rousseau's recipe for democracy. Developing the argument via Nietzsche's tragic perspective, Johnston wonders aloud whether all attempts at democracy will collapse under the weight of their internal contradictions.
The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies. By Robert E. Lane. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. 466p. $42.00 cloth, $19.00 paper.
Authors: Waligorski Conrad P.
Published: May 2008

Happiness, unhappiness, and depression are not the usual foci of political science or economics, but Robert Lane demonstrates their importance. The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies is a worthy companion to and extension of Lane's earlier work, especially The Market Experience (1991). Lane employs psychology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and medical research to convince economists and democratic theorists that biological and psychological research can enrich their often unrealistic assumptions about well-being and behavior. He argues that in affluent societies there is growing unhappiness, growing depression, and declining marginal utility of income to produce happiness. These are accompanied by mistrust and increasing political negativity, which further undermine happiness. The dominant Western image of individualism ignores that people often do not know what makes them happy, which undermines prevailing market and democratic premises (p. 284).
Putting Trust in the U.S. Budget: Federal Trust Funds and the Politics of Commitment. By Eric M. Patashnik. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. 231p. $54.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.
Authors: Palazzolo Daniel J.
Published: May 2008

Nearly four decades ago, in a path-breaking book, Aaron Wildavsky taught us, among other things, that “in the most integral sense the budget lies at the heart of the political process” (The Politics of the Budgetary Process, 1964, p. 5). Building on Wildavsky's study, many scholars have contributed to our understanding of various aspects of budget policy and politics. Some have discussed the role of trust funds in the federal budget, but none have made them the central focus of their research. Eric Patashnick fills an important void in the literature by explaining why trust funds are created and how they affect deliberation over tax and spending decisions. Using the trust fund mechanism as a point of reference, Patashnik also tests theories of policy history, public choice, and institutionalism.
Capital, Labor, and State: The Battle for American Labor Markets from the Civil War to the New Deal. By David Brian Robertson. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. 320p. $75.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.
Authors: Battista Andrew
Published: May 2008

This important new study argues that American labor markets have been and are governed by employers to a degree unique among Western capitalist democracies; that this pattern of governance is the outcome of crucial struggles among unions, employers, and middle-class labor reformers from the Civil War to the New Deal; and that American political institutions strongly shaped the struggles and their outcome. In the nineteenth century, all Western countries largely protected employer control of hiring, firing, wages, hours, and working conditions, but in the twentieth century nations other than the United States began to curb employer prerogatives and extend worker protection in the form of labor regulations, trade union and collective bargaining laws, public management of labor supply and demand, and work insurance (the four major types of policy in Robertson's framework). In the United States, fewer such protections were established, and the fragmented federal and state labor policies that were enacted were often undermined by lax enforcement or court rulings. On the eve of the New Deal, Robertson shows, U.S. employers had a degree of autonomy in labor markets unparalleled in European and other industrialized countries.
Policy, Office or Votes? How Political Parties in Western Europe Make Hard Decisions Edited by Wolfgang C. Müller and Kaare Strøm. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 319p. $59.95 cloth, $21.95 paper.
Authors: Laver Michael
Published: May 2008

This book is about the motivations of political actors. Many of the most commonly used models of party competition and government formation are grounded in explicit assumptions about the motivations of party strategists. These tend to assume one of three basic and interrelated motivations—the desire to fulfill policy objectives, the desire to control the perquisites of office, and the desire to maximize votes. While recognizing that living and breathing people may be driven by any or all of these motivations, among others, and that these may interact with each other in complex ways, most theorists ground their models in assumptions of policy-seeking OR office-seeking OR vote-maximizing by key political decision makers. Indeed this distinction between motivational assumptions is one of the most common ways to classify models of party competition. In part the grounding of models in a single motivational assumption is for the sake of analytical tractability; in part it is because the heuristic insights made possible by these approaches are enhanced if the models are kept simple and their relationship to core assumptions is kept straightforward.
A Logic of Expressive Choice. By Alexander A. Schuessler. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. 177p. $49.50 cloth, $16.95 paper.
Authors: Munger Michael C.
Published: May 2008

An interesting aspect of life at Duke is the annual construction of our local Brigadoon. The well-ordered but ephemeral tent city is named “Krzyzewskiville,” after Duke's head basketball coach. K-ville appears once a year in the weeks before the game against UNC-Chapel Hill, our arch rival. So many students want to see this game that an elaborate nonprice rationing scheme, based on a queue, has evolved to allocate tickets. “Tenting” students may have to wait two weeks or more to get tickets. The game is in January or early February, so they sleeping outside and try to keep up with their school work despite rain, snow, and subfreezing temperatures at night. Random checks (even in the middle of the night) are conducted by student representatives; if a tent is empty too often it is taken down, and the residents lose their place in the queue.
Uncivil Movements: The Armed Right Wing and Democracy in Latin America By Leigh A. Payne. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. 328p. $42.50.
Authors: Huggins Martha
Published: May 2008

Leigh Payne greatly enriches our knowledge of Latin American transitions from authoritarianism to democracy. The Armed Right Wing focuses on the role of violent right-wing groups and government responses to them in three Latin American countries, with application elsewhere. Explaining that uncivil social movements “use political violence … to promote exclusionary objectives … as a deliberate strategy to eliminate, intimidate, and silence political adversaries” (p. 1), Payne contrasts these movements with “civil” social movements. They employ rule-breaking (and violence) to “expand [rather than curtail] citizen rights and freedoms” (p. 1).
The Left's Dirty Job: The Politics of Industrial Restructuring in France and Spain By W. Rand Smith. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998. 363p. $50.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.
Authors: Loriaux Michael
Published: May 2008

W. Rand Smith compares socialist policies of industrial retrenchment in France and Spain during the 1980s and 1990s. Both governments sought to adapt their national economy to change in the global market, through investment incentives and labor policies, in a way that would avoid sectoral crisis or even collapse. They sought to achieve an “orderly exit” of labor from redundancy-plagued industrial sectors, notably steel and automobiles, through job retraining, help in establishing small businesses, relocation incentives, and improvements in the job market, not to mention such standard support mechanisms as severance payments and preretirement systems that supported the incomes of unemployed workers. There was a distinct convergence between French and Spanish policy around this kind of adaptive policy. Neither country after 1983 resisted global market trends through price controls or subsidies or trade protection, and neither government embraced market adjustment through more liberal policies of deregulation of capital or labor markets.
Fenced Off: The Suburbanization of American Politics. By Juliet F. Gainsborough. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001. 191p. $70.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.
Authors: Riposa Gerry
Published: May 2008

By the 1970s—and, some might argue, a decade earlier—America had shed its urban persona and had metamorphosed into a suburban nation. Yet in comparison with research done on cities and urban politics, little work had focused on this transition and ensuing suburban politics. Juliet Gainsborough's work seeks to reduce this deficiency by examining the suburban movement, its motivations, and their linkage to political behavior. Thankfully moving beyond previous discussions of mortgages and work commutes, the author narrows the focus of this short monograph to how living in the suburbs affects voter choice and policy preferences by altering the decision-making calculus (p. 8).
Democracy. By Albert Weale. New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. 244p. $59.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.
Authors: Bellamy Richard
Published: May 2008

Like other volumes in the series Issues in Political Theory, which Weale edits with Peter Jones, this book combines an overview of the topic suitable for advanced undergraduates and above with an original argument reflecting the author's distinctive perspective that is likely to stimulate fellow specialists. The combination is an attractive one, which, when it works—as it does in this case—ensures that we do not get the sort of deadly dull textbook that merely rehashes other people's ideas. There are two novel features of Weale's argument. The first is his justification of democracy in terms of its capacity to enable members of society to advance their common interests as political equals in a situation of human fallibility. The second is his attempt to delineate the form of democracy, including the type of representation and decision rule, most likely to promote this purpose. I take each in turn.
A Two-Way Street: The Institutional Dynamics of the Modern Administrative State. By George A. Krause. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999. 256p. $45.00.
Authors: Hill Larry B.
Published: May 2008

George A. Krause has undertaken a statistical analysis of the relationship between the president and the Congress and the enforcement activities of two regulatory agencies: the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice for the years 1949–92. He finds that the president and the Congress often influenced each other, but neither of the political branches succeeded in dominating the bureaucracies. These findings are consistent with the interpretations of presidential-congressional-bureaucratic power of most journalists, sociologists, historians, political scientists, and public administration scholars.
Death and the Statesman: The Culture and Psychology of U.S. Leaders During War. By Joseph B. Underhill-Cady. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 256p. $39.95.
Authors: Sykes Patricia Lee
Published: May 2008

Death and the Statesman appeared in print one month after the terrorist attacks on September 11, and the timing of its publication alone might attract a wide audience. The book deals with a significant subject of immediate interest to scholars and citizens alike—namely, what drives political leaders as they decide when and how to conduct war. Joseph Underhill-Cady argues that members of the foreign policymaking elite remain preoccupied with their own mortality. He suggests how their metaphors and rituals reveal their persistent fear and high anxiety about death, and he shows how their decisions to go to war can be read to reflect this preoccupation. For the foreign policy elite, the conduct of war constitutes an “immortality project.” According to the author, “As the elite sought to overcome their physical limitations, they likewise attempted to ensure the nation's transcendence of its mortal bounds” (p. 10). Underhill-Cady notes the gender-specific nature of foreign policymaking (p. 45). Macho men deny the inevitability of their own deaths and suppress their emotions, while they labor to ensure that the nation shall long endure. He traces the roots of their immortality projects to the Christian tradition: Man has fallen, but he can achieve salvation and thereby gain eternal life (pp. 52–55). The author renders a plausible, thought-provoking argument, although the evidence he produces could be more convincing.