LITERATURE REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this articles: BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY LIBRARY AND INFORMATION POLICY: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOK REVIEW ESSAYS Kenneth J. Coffey, Strategic Implications of the All-Volunteer Force. The Conventional Defense of Central Europe W. Scott Thompson, ed., National Security in the 1980s: From Weakness to Strength Lennart J. Lundqvist, The Hare and the Tortoise: Clean Air Policies in the United States and Sweden Charles T. Stewart, Jr. Air Pollution, Human Health, and Public Policy Richard J. Tobin, The Social Gamble: Determining Acceptable Levels of Air Quality Lennart J. Lundqvist, The Hare and the Tortoise: Clean Air Policies in the United States and Sweden Charles T. Stewart, Jr. Air Pollution, Human Health, and Public Policy Richard J. Tobin, The Social Gamble: Determining Acceptable Levels of Air Quality Lynton R. Hayes, Energy, Economic Growth, and Regulationism in the West Helen M. Ingram Nancy K. Laney and John R. McCain, A Policy Approach to Political Representation: Lessons from the Four Corners States Stuart L. Hart and Gordon A. Enk, Green Goals and Greenbacks: State Level Environmental Review Programs and Their Associated Costs Alfred A. Marcus, Promise and Performance; Choosing and Implementing an Environmental Policy Krause, Lawrence B. and Sekiguchi, Sueo, eds., Economic Interaction in the Pacific Basin Tasca, Diane, ed., U.S.-Japanese-Economic Relations: Cooperation, Competition, and Confrontation Vasey, Lloyd R. ed., Pacific Asia and U.S. Policies: A Political-Economic Strategic Assessment BOOK REVIEWS Franklin A. Long and Judith Reppy, ed., The Genesis of New Weapons—Decision Making for Military R&D Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Warfare In a Fragile World: Military Impact on the Human Environment George F, Break, Financing Government in a Federal System Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services Jeffrey A. Raffel, The Politics of School Desegregation: The Metropolitan Remedy in Delaware BOOKNOTES Cotton M. Lindsay, ed., NEW DIRECTIONS IN PUBLIC HEALTH CAHE: A PRESCRIPTION FOR THE 1980'S Gautreaux Housing Demonstration: An Evaluation of Its Impact on Participating Households The Conversion of Rental Housing to Condominiums and Cooperatives     

Selecting and Sampling Shipwreck Timbers for Dendrochronological Research: practical guidance

In this article, we provide practical and straightforward guidance for the selection and sampling of shipwreck timbers for dendrochronological research. We outline sampling strategies and present informative figures that illustrate how to proceed in a variety of scenarios that archaeologists regularly encounter. However, in order to fully exploit the potential of tree‐ring research on these objects, we would urge archaeologists to involve dendrochronologists during the project planning phase to carefully plan and conduct adequate sampling of shipwreck assemblages.     

(Re)assessing Parliamentary Policy Impact: The Case of the Australian Senate

A recent article in this Journal suggested that assumptions about the legislative influence of the Australian Senate may overstate its de facto power. Stanley Bach indicated that compromise with the Senate was relatively rare, and pointed out that most successful Senate amendments were government amendments. This paper provides an alternative view. We suggest that legislative influence is more subtle than Bach acknowledged, and that it is necessary to dig deeper in the data to fully understand the Senate's role. We therefore supplement his analysis in two ways: (1) through tracking the ultimate outcome of government defeats in the Senate; and (2) through analysis of two case study bills. We find that in confrontations with government the Senate ‘wins’ the great majority of the time. This shapes government behaviour in the chamber, such that many government amendments actually respond to non-government concerns. The most important element of Senate influence is therefore ‘soft power’– exercised through negotiation – backed up only in extremis by the ‘hard power’ of government defeat. This holds important lessons for the study of legislative influence more broadly, as well as demonstrating the true power of the Australian Senate.     

"Indirect Regulation" of Environmental Hazards Through the Provision of Information to The Public

Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 seeks to reduce the risks of chemical accidents through a strategy of indirect regulation that relies on providing the public with information about chemical hazards. For this strategy to be effective, citizens must aggressively utilize the information provided to monitor industrial practices and press for risk reduction. Since prior research suggests it is very difficult to evoke the degree of citizen action that would be required to make a strategy of indirect regulation successful, and since the federal legislation provided no funds for implementation, there is a question of whether the structures set up by Title III are sufficient to achieve its objectives. This article reports the results of anational study that examined selected aspects of the implementation of Title III in an effort to assess the likely outcome of its attempt at indirect regulation. Our focus is on the degree to which the Title III-mandated Local Emergency Planning Committees are pursuing policies that are likely to get the necessary information to citizens and foster community debate on hazardous materials issues.     

What to do with vacant and abandoned residential structures? The effects of teardowns and rehabilitations on nearby properties

In the presented paper, we estimate the impacts of three distinct housing policy interventions to deal with distressed and abandoned residential properties: leaving vacant buildings in their current state, remodeling/rebuilding residential structures, and razing vacant structures. We show that vacant structures negatively impact nearby housing up to 4.1%, but when demolition is followed by complete reconstruction, neighboring housing can be appreciated by as much as 14.1%. In addition, negative spillover effects from foreclosures and vacant buildings are primarily observed in low‐income and middle‐income Census tracts, whereas positive spillover effects generated by remodeling are seen in high‐income Census tracts.     

On the Transformative Potential of Community Land Trusts in the United States

Growing interest in non‐capitalist ownership models raises empirical questions about the political implications of such models. In this paper we ask: are non‐capitalist property ownership models inherently politically transformative? A study of community land trusts (CLTs) based in Minnesota illustrates that alternative property models do not necessarily produce transformative political outcomes. Interviews of those involved in CLTs revealed that they most often engage in affirmative politics, rather than challenging structural problems. Seeds of transformation were evident in these CLTs as well, however, and we explore these moments through four lenses of transformation in order to see the potential building blocks toward other worlds. To this end, we highlight changes in participant subjectivities, collective relationship building, the cultivation of community control, and the subversion of power hierarchies. While these moments offer pathways toward greater transformation, this study reveals the necessity of intentionally transformative practice in alternative ownership models.