Book reviews

G. Adrian Horridge. The design of planked boats of the Moluccas. [Greenwich]: The National, Martime Museum, 1978. [vi], iii, 54 pp. (Maritime Monographs and Reports, No. 38.).

G. Adrian Horridge. The lambo or prahu bot: a Western ship in an Eastern setting. [Greenwich]: National Maritime Museum, 1979. [ii], iv, 41 pp. (Maritime Monographs and Reports, No. 39.).

G. Adrian Horridge. The Konjo boatbuilders and the Bugis prahus of South Sulawesi. [Greenwich]: National Maritime Museum, 1979. [ii], vi, 56 pp. (Maritime Monographs and Reports, No. 40.).

Sri Owen. Indonesian food and cookery. London: Prospect Books, 1980. 255pp., map [on inside back cover]. £4.95.

James J. Fox (ed.). The flow of life: essays on eastern Indonesia. Cambridge, Mass., and London, Harvard University Press: 1980. xi, 372 pp. (Harvard Studies in Cultural Anthropology, 2.)     

The gradual transformation of a weak but enduring regime: contemporary French prostitution policy in transition (1946–2016)

Historically, states have tended to opt for one of three prostitution policy regimes: prohibition, regulation or the abolition of state regulation with a view to providing social support to the individuals involved. This is the approach France has espoused since 1960. Nevertheless, while the state has remained committed to abolitionism, the policies and laws adopted in the name of French abolitionism have varied considerably. This coexistence of stability and change challenges current assumptions of how policy regimes behave and evolve. This is because internal policy change suggests that the regime is weak, and weak regimes that experience strong political challenges are assumed to wither away or collapse. Consequently, this article presents the historical case study of contemporary French prostitution policy, and seeks to explain how and why this policy regime has changed the way it has since World War II. It describes the three phases that have contributed to the evolution of policy in this area, from sex workers’ rights protests in the mid 1970s, to the introduction of a demand-side ban on prostitution in 2016. In doing so, it explains how strong commitment to policy ideas can help sustain an otherwise weak or ineffective policy regime.