Book Reviews

George, Alexander L., and Juliette L. George. Presidential Personality and Performance. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998. Pp. x, 304. $75.00, hardbound; $25.00, softbound.

Epstein, David, and Sharyn O'Halloran. Delegating Powers: A Transaction Cost Politics Approach to Policy Making Under Separate Powers. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xvi, 320. $59.95, hardbound; $19.95, softbound.

Kahn, Kim Fridkin, and Patrick J. Kenney. The Spectacle of U.S. Senate Campaigns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Pp. xiv, 278. $57.50, hardbound; $18.95, softbound.

Michaels, Judith E. 1997. The President's Call: Executive Leadership from FDR to George Bush. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Pp. x, 348. $50.00, hardbound; $22.95, softbound.

Savage, James D. Funding Science in America: Congress, Universities, and the Politics of the Academic Pork Barrel. New York, Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xiii, 219. $49.95, hardbound.

Stid, Daniel D. The President as Statesman: Woodrow Wilson and the Constitution. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1998. Pp. xi, 231. $35.00, hardbound.

Steven Shull. American Civil Rights Policy from Truman to Clinton: The Role of Presidential Leadership. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1999. Pp. xv, 294. $64.95, hardbound.

Yalof, David Alistair. Pursuit of Justices: Presidential Politics and the Selection of Supreme Court Nominees. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Pp. x, 296. $27.95, hardbound.     

Moral Ecological Rationality,Institutions and the Management of Common Property Resources

This article considers theories of collective action in relation to the management of communal water resources in Nkayi District, Zimbabwe. Taking a critical view of institutional explanations of common property resource management, it illustrates how the addition of social theory can enrich such approaches. The prevalence of rational choice premises in defining the problem of collective action and the persuasiveness of institutionalism in apparently offering solutions to it is questioned. The article rejects simple evolutionary theorizing about institutions in favour of an embedded approach that allows for complexity, for the social and historical location of collective action and for an examination of the interface between agent and structure. It is argued here that collective management of water supplies does exist but that it is more partial, changeable and evolving and less attributable to single factors than suggested in much of the literature.     

A spatial duopoly: competition in the western Canadian fur trade, 1770–1835

The period 1770–1835 witnessed the growth and climax of intense fur trade rivalry in western Canada between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company together with independent “peddlers”. This competition had significant spatial consequences, most notably the proliferation of posts on interior waterways, leap-frogging of competitors to more advantageous locations, leading to close clustering of rival posts. This clustering occurred in spite of a bitter and sometimes violent tug-of-war over Indian fur supplies. This locational pattern is examined in the light of Harold Hotelling's concept of duopolistic competition. A spatial duopoly model is described and applied to the fur trade and indicates that the clustering of rival posts was a predictable outgrowth of duopolistic economic forces, rather than an anomalous result of perverse non-economic behaviour. These conclusions are affirmed by observers of the trade at the time of competition and by evidence of spatial change in the locational pattern following the merger of the two rivals in 1821.     

Bone changes in the human skull probably resulting from scurvy in infancy and childhood

Scurvy in children is poorly known in the palaeopathological literature despite biomedical references indicating that bone changes do occur in some cases and should be observable in human skeletal remains. Research on infants' and children's skulls in museum and anatomical collections in the USA and Europe reveals a complex of features on the external surface of the greater wing of the sphenoid and adjacent bone tissue that may be caused by scurvy. The lesions are bilateral and are characterized by porosity and, in some cases, hypertrophic bone formation. These abnormal bone changes are probably the result of a reaction to chronic haemorrhage in the deep vasculature associated with temporalis muscle function. While these lesions resemble those seen in anaemia and infection, their distinctive anatomical location and association with chewing should differentiate them, in most cases, from other disease conditions. These features are also associated with porous, hypertrophic lesions of the orbital roof and provide additional evidence that caution is needed in attributing porous lesions of the orbital roof solely to anaemia. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The wellsprings of candidate emergence: Geographic origins of statewide candidacies in the United States

Candidates and nominees for statewide office in the United States do not emerge from random locations within states. In this paper, we argue that densely populated areas are more likely to both foster political ambition and to afford the resources that enable candidates to wage an effective campaign. Candidates and nominees for major statewide office originate from populous counties in numbers significantly out of proportion to these counties’ share of their state’s population. Meanwhile, aspirants virtually never emerge out of rural areas or small towns. The pattern holds for all candidates and nominees for both Senate and governor and for both major political parties. Regional biases are more pronounced for institutionally strong gubernatorial offices than for weak offices and among high quality nominees for statewide office than among inexperienced candidates. Given the importance of urban/rural cleavages in the American electorate, these findings raise fundamental questions about political representation.