The retreat from neoliberalism that was not: Australia’s Building the Education Revolution

This article examines the durability of neoliberalism in the face of crisis by analysing the Building the Education Revolution (BER), a key part of the Australian Labor Government’s stimulus measures in response to the global financial crisis in 2009. The fiscal stimulus measures enacted by governments in the aftermath of the crisis led many commentators to herald the end of neoliberalism. By examining the design of the BER, however, this article finds that one of the key policy tools of neoliberalism – the outsourcing of public sector capacity – was extended through such stimulus programs. The article argues that a materialist analysis of neoliberalism is better able to understand this phenomenon than the recent tendency to analyse neoliberalism in ideational terms.     

Policy Diffusion and Strategies for Promoting Policy Change: Evidence From California Local Gun Control Ordinances

Recent research efforts on policy innovation and diffusion largely have focused upon policymaking at the state government level. In this article we seek to develop an understanding of the ways momentum for policy change can be generated among receptive local governments. We use gun control policymaking within California to illustrate how local government characteristics, the presence of regional associations, and the establishment of interest groups may lead to policy development and diffusion. We also identify linkages between interest groups, focusing events, and the successful use of a new image of gun violence as a public health problem, yielding insights into strategies that may be used successfully to promote policy change.     

Introduction: New Directions in the History of Missionsin Africa

This short article introduces a selection of papers originally presented at the conference, "Africans Meeting Missionaries: Rethinking Colonial Encounters," held at the University of Minnesota in May 1997. Until quite recently much of the scholarship on missions in Africa tended to reproduce early eighteenth- and nineteenth-century images of the colossal, all-powerful missionary. Whether celebrated as an heroic, civilizing agent in mission accounts or branded as a cultural imperialist in nationalist-era scholarship, the European missionary remained an actor scarcely soiled by the cultural commerce of the people on whom he worked. In short, African religious or political initiatives were seldom taken seriously. The papers which make up this collection give voice to and extend current debates surrounding the contested history (and future) of the missionary enterprise in Africa.     

Modeling Air Quality in Urban Areas: A Cell‐Based Statistical Approach

Statistical regression models are presented that explain the observed variations, across urban areas, in the concentrations of two major pollutants, ozone and carbon monoxide. Model specification and estimation are based on an explicit and new spatial framework derived from the theoretical concept of well‐mixed cells, whereby the basic Fickian system of diffusion equations is integrated over the regional space partitioned into a grid of large cells. The concentration in each cell results from the balance of pollutant flows into and out of this cell and of pollutant emissions and removal within that cell, and is expressed as the sum of two concentration contributions: (1) the local effect, dependent upon pollution‐related factors around the measuring station, and (2) the regional effect, dependent upon pollutant flows originating outside the local area. A large database is developed, making extensive use of GIS technology, to spatially relate such data as pollution measurements, meteorological factors, land‐use characteristics, census socioeconomic data, and major highway network characteristics. The results confirm the appropriateness of the well‐mixed cell framework, are in line with general knowledge regarding the determinants of ozone and carbon monoxide concentrations, and clarify the role of transportation, residential fuel use, economic activities, natural environments, and meteorological factors such as temperature and solar radiation. About SO percent of the variations in concentrations are explained by these models. Several areas of further research are outlined.     

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Ian Budge and Dennis J. Farlie, Explaining and Predicting Elections. Issue Effects and Party Strategies in Twenty‐Three Democracies, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp. 226. $49.95

John McMillan, Gareth Evans and Haddon Storey Australia's Constitution: Time for Change? Sydney, Law Foundation of NSW and Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp. 422. $9.95 (paper)

Richard Lucy (ed) The Pieces of Politics, 3rd edn, Melbourne, Macmillan, 1983, pp. 532. $39.95, $19.95 (paper)

K.S. Inglis, This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission 1932–1983, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp.521. $24.95

Richard Kennedy (ed) Australian Welfare History: Critical Essays. Melbourne, Macmillan, 1982, pp. 322 $13.95

Adam Graycar (ed) Retreat From the Welfare State, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1983, pp.206. $22.50, $11.95 (paper)

Frank Brennan, Too Much Order With Too Little Law, St Lucia, Queensland University Press, 1983, pp. 303. $24.95, $12.95 (paper)

Stan Ross, Politics of Law Reform, Ringwood, Penguin, 1982, pp. 295. $9.95

Peter Edwards, Prime Ministers and Diplomats: The Makings of Australian Foreign Policy, 1901–1949, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1983, pp. 240. $24.99

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Samuel H. Beer, Britain Against Itself: The Political Contradictions of Collectivism, London, Faber and Faber, 1982, pp. 231. £9.50

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