Facilitating Interaction: Board Games as Social Lubricants in the Ancient Near East

This re‐evaluation of existing data on board games from the Near Eastern Bronze Age demonstrates their function as social lubricants in cross‐cultural interaction. Board games are situated theoretically as liminoid practices, which lie outside the bounds of normative social behaviour and allow for interaction across social boundaries. Utilizing double‐sided game boards, with an indigenous game on one side and a newly introduced game on the other, the games of senet, mehen and twenty squares provide evidence for social interactions. Cypriots had adopted Egyptian mehen and senet by the third millennium BC, and indigenized the games. This lies in contrast to the game of twenty squares, which had a particular role among elites in the Late Bronze Age interaction sphere. This anthropological discussion of evidence relating to gaming seeks to inspire further research on the role of board games in society.     

On the urns of a dilemma: radiocarbon and the Peterborough problem

Radiocarbon dates are presented for distinctive types of British Late Neolithic pottery, identifying questions which cannot yet be resolved.     

STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING MODELS OF STOCHASTIC NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM*

ABSTRACT. Boyce et al. (1981, 1983) have proposed and implementd the use of observed entropy levels to estimate the travel-cost coefficient in mathematical programming models of network equilibrium which involve logit route-choice probabilities. This so-called “dispersion-constrained” model is shown to give severely biased and statistically inefficient underestimates. A natural counterpart, the entropy-maximizing model, is proposed here and overestimates the travel-cost coefficient with much lower bias and much higher statistical efficiency. Even though the two models are mathematically homeomorphic in some respects, they have vastly different statistical properties. It follows that the use of observed entropy levels is undesirable and should be avoided, since maximizing entropy provides an unambiguously superior alternative.     

Book Reviews

Australian Politics

Stephen Alomes and Catherine Jones (eds), A Documentary History of Australian Nationalism (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1991) pp.viii + 464. $29.95 ISBN 0 207 1634 2.

Ron Callus, Alison Morehead, Mark Cully and John Buchanan, Industrial Relations at Work: The Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Industrial Relations, AGPS, 1991) pp.xxii + 366. $24.95 ISBN 0 644 13429 1.

Anne Crichton, Slowly Taking Control? (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990) pp.xiii + 279. $19.95 ISBN 0 04 442166 4.

Greg Fry (ed.) Australia's Regional Security (Sydney: Unwin & Allen, 1991) pp.x + 221. $16.95 ISBN 0 04 302001 1.

Brian Galligan, Owen Hughes and Cliff Walsh (eds), Intergovernmental Relations and Public Policy (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991) pp.xiv + 389. $27.50 ISBN 0 04 442257 1.

Christine Jennett and Randal G. Stewart (eds), Hawke and Australian Public Policy: Consensus and Restructuring (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1990) pp.vii + 422.$29.9S ISBN 0 7329 0343 2.

Ian McAllister and Rhonda Moore, Party Strategy and Change: Australian Electoral Speeches Since 1946 (Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1991) pp.xiv + 332. $28.99 ISBN 0 582 86971 4.

Doug McEachern, Business Mates: The Power and Politics of the Hawke Era (Sydney: Prentice Hall, 1991) pp.xi + 168. $n.p. ISBN 0 7428 0520 6.

Allan Peachment (ed.), The Business of Government: Western Australia 1983–1990 (Sydney: The Federation Press, 1991) pp.xvi + 240. $25.00 ISBN 1 86287 046 2.

Chris Pirie and John Power (eds), Economic and Management Pressures on Australian Public Administration (Canberra College of Advanced Education in association with the Victorian Division of the Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, 1989) pp.vii + 163. $n.p. ISBN 0 85889 338 X.

Comparative and International Politics

Christopher J. Bailey, The US Congress (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989) pp.x + 175. $n.p. ISBN 0 631 15861 6.

Herman Bakvis, Regional Ministers: Power and Influence in the Canadian Cabinet (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991) pp.xv + 378. $Can.22.95 ISBN 0 8020 6698 4.

Lester R. Brown et al, State of the World: A Worldwatch Institute Report on Progress Toward a Sustainable Society (Sydney: Allen & Unwin in association with W.W. Norton & Co./Worldwatch Institute [New York], 1991) pp.xvii + 254. $19.95 ISBN 86373 018 4.

Alistair Cole (ed.), French Political Parties in Transition (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1990) pp.xiii + 212. £29.50 ISBN 1 85521 012 6.

John Gittings, China Changes Face: The Road from Revolution 1949–1989 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) pp.xiv + 322. $19.95 ISBN 0 19 285165 9.

Harry Harding, China's Second Revolution. Reform After Mao (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1989) pp.xx + 369. $19.95 ISBN 0 04 442106 0.

John W. Longworth (ed.), China's Rural Development Miracle With International Comparisons (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1989) pp.xxiv + 457. $n.p. ISBN 0 7022 2264 X.

Emmanuel Todd (trans. A. and B. Forster), The Making of Modern France (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.x + 224. $37.95 ISBN 0 631 17948 8.

Achin Vanaik, The Painful Transition: Bourgeois Democracy in India (London: Verso, 1991) pp.302. $32.95 ISBN 0 86091 504 2.

Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye (eds WJ.F. Jenner and Delia Davin) Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China (London: Penguin Books, 1989) pp.xxii + 367. $14.99 ISBN 0 14 011625 7.

Political Theory and Methodology

S. Alomes and D. den Hartog (eds), Post Pop: Popular Culture, Nationalism and Postmodernism (Footscray: Footprint, 1991) pp.130. $np. ISBN 186297 012 2.

Clare Burton, The Promise & The Price: The Struggle for Equal Opportunity in Women's Employment (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991) pp.xiv + 184. $18.95 ISBN 0 04 442286 5.

Mark Cowling and Lawrence Wilde (eds), Approaches to Marx (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1989) pp.xiv + 231. $29.95 ISBN 0 335 15621 5.

Robert Meister, Political Identity: Thinking Through Marx (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990) pp.ix + 426. $45.00 ISBN 0 631 17746 9.

J.‐P. Fitoussi and E.S. Phelps, The Slump in Europe: Reconstructing Open Economy Theory (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988) pp.xiii + 145. $29.95 ISBN 0 631 17181 9.

William M. Johnston, Celebrations: The Cult of Anniversaries in Europe and the United States Today. (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1991) pp.xii + 187. $n.p. ISBN 0 88738 375 0.

Boris Kagarlitsky (translator: Rick Simon), Farewell Perestroika: A Soviet Chronicle (London and New York: Verso, 1990) pp.vii + 217. $29.95 ISBN 0 86091 5085.

Sonia Kruks, Situation and Human Existence: Freedom, Subjectivity and Society (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990) pp.xv + 215. $19.95 ISBN 0 04 4454570.

Martin Laffin, Managing Under Pressure: Industrial Relations in Local Government (London: Macmillan, 1989) pp.xvi + 207. $27.95 ISBN 0 333 44660 7.

Mary Lyndon Shanley and Carole Pateman (eds), Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991) pp.x + 288. $29.95 ISBN 0 7456 07505 5.

John Mathews, Age of Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) pp.vxii + 278. $16.95 ISBN 0 19 554923 6.

Thomas E. McCollough, The Moral Imagination and Public Life: Raising the Ethical) Question (New Jersey: Chatham House Publishers, 1991) pp.xv + 176. $US14.95 ISBN 0 934540 85 3.

Ephraim Nimni, Marxism and Nationalism: Theoretical Origins of a Political Crisis (London: Pluto Press, 1991) pp.x + 242. £27.50 ISBN 0 04 442286 5.

Peter Osbome (ed.), Socialism and the Limits of Liberalism (London: Verso, 1991), pp.299. $32.95. ISBN 0 86091 543 3.

Suri Ratnapala, Welfare State or Constitutional State? (Sydney: Centre for Independent Studies, 1990) pp.xii + 113. $12.95 ISBN 0 949769 54 1.

L.J. Sharpe, The Anglo‐American Lexicon of the Social Sciences (Oxford: Trulex, 1990) pp.vi + 146. £10.00.

A. Sivanandan, Communities of Resistance: Writings on Black Struggles for Socialism (London: Verso, 1990) pp.ix + 250. $34.95 ISBN 0 86091 514 X.     

Governed by Experience: Political Careers and Party Loyalty in the Senate

In this article, we study the U.S. Senate to understand how legislators' previous experiences in elected office influence their political behavior. We posit that, as a result of their experiences in office, former governors in the Senate are less partisan than their colleagues. We code the political jobs held by senators between 1983 and 2015 and analyze the effects of these careers on party loyalty in Senate floor votes. We find that gubernatorial service is associated with a 7–8% decrease in Party Unity. We test several hypotheses for the observed “governor effect” and find that, relative to their colleagues, former governors are supported by donor networks that are less ideologically extreme. We conclude that the unique experiences associated with serving as governor, along with the personalized nature of governors' electoral support coalitions, affect a senator's relationship with the party. Ultimately, our analysis illuminates how personal attributes, such as prior experience in elected office, can inform the study of legislative behavior.     

A REGIONAL ECONOMY,LAND USE,AND TRANSPORTATION MODEL (RELU‐TRAN©): FORMULATION,ALGORITHM DESIGN,AND TESTING*

ABSTRACT RELU is a dynamic general equilibrium model of a metropolitan economy and its land use, derived by unifying in a theoretically valid way, models developed by one of the authors [ Anas (1982) , Anas–Arnott (1991, 1997) , Anas–Kim (1996) , Anas–Xu (1999) ]. RELU equilibrates floor space, land and labor markets, and the market for the products of industries, treating development (construction and demolition), spatial interindustry linkages, commuting, and discretionary travel. Mode choices and equilibrium congestion on the highway network are treated by unifying RELU with the TRAN algorithm of stochastic user equilibrium [ Anas–Kim (1990) ]. The RELU‐TRAN algorithm's performance for a stationary state is demonstrated for a prototype consisting of 4‐building, 4‐industry, 4‐labor‐type, 15‐land‐use‐zone, 68‐link‐highway‐network version of the Chicago MSA. The algorithm solves 656 equations in a special block‐recursive convergent procedure by iterations nested within loops and loops within cycles. Runs show excellent and smooth convergence from different starting points, so that the number of loops within successive cycles continually decreases. The tests also imply a numerically ascertained unique stationary equilibrium solution of the unified model for the calibrated parameters.     

Leaving on a Jet Plane: Polarization,Foreign Travel,and Comity in Congress

No political observer, politician, or political scientist doubts that party polarization has weakened the social fabric of Congress. Measuring that effect, however, is exceedingly difficult. In this article, we operationalize the congressional social fabric by examining the foreign travel behavior of members of Congress over time. We evaluate the social disintegration in Congress by examining if and whether changes in member travel can explain why the social connectedness of members has waned. Using a unique dataset of foreign travel for House members from 1977 to 2012, we find that Republican House members, in particular, have altered their foreign travel patterns. Ideologically extreme members have always been less likely to take foreign trips, but extremely conservative Republican have become much more likely to travel only with co-partisans as polarization has increased in Congress. Ideologically moderate Republicans, while still traveling as members of bipartisan delegations, have also increased their willingness to travel only with fellow Republicans. Our results suggest that bipartisan foreign travel is a victim of the partisan war waging in Congress.