Book reviews

Glen St J. Barclay, Friends in High Places. Australian‐American Diplomatic Relations Since 1945. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, pp 245, $25.00.

Leonie Foster, High Hopes: The Men and Motives of the Australian Round Table. Melbourne University Press in association with the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Melbourne, 1986, pp.xviii+294. $25.00.

Ritchie Ovendale, The English‐Speaking Alliance: Britain, the United States, the Dominions and the Cold War, 1945–51. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1985, ppxt309. $60.00.

Australian Institute of Urban Affairs, Review of Australian Assistance to the Indonesian Water Supply and Sanitation Sector. A report for the Australian Development Assistance Bureau, January 1986. pp.xxxiii + 305. $ 16.00.

Malcolm Templeton, Defence and Security: What New Zealand Needs. Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University, Wellington, 1986, pp.62. $NZ11.00.

Philip Eldridge, Dean Forbes and Doug Porter, Australian Overseas Aid: Future Directions. Croom Helm, Sydney, 1986, pp. 284. £16.95.

Christopher Clapham, Third World Politics. An Introduction. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1985, pp.197. $39.95 (cloth), $17.50 (paper).

William Tordoff, Government and Politics in Africa, Macmillan, London, 1984, pp.xix+352. £7.95.

Richard Hodder‐Williams. An Introduction to the Politics of Tropical Africa. George Allen and Unwin, London, Boston and Sydney, 1984. $45.00 (cloth), $ 17.95 (paper).

D. K. Fieldhouse, Black Africa 1945–1980: Economic Decolonization and Arrested Development. Allen and Unwin, London, 1986, pp.xix & 260. $32.50.

Neil Kinnock, Making Our Way. Investing in Britain's Future. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1986, pp.viii + 200. $13.95.

Andrew J. Taylor, The Trade Unions and the Labour Party. Croom Helm, London, 1987, pp. 320. £27.50.

Alistair I. Johnston, China and Arms Control: Emerging Issues and Interest in the 1980s. The Canadian Centre for Arms Control and Disarmament, Ottawa, 1986, pp.85. $US12.00.

Tim Huxley, Asean and Indochina. A Study of Political Responses. 1975–1981. Canberra Studies in World Affairs No. 19. Department of International Relations, the Australian National University, 1985, pp. 116. $10.00.

Lim Chong‐Yah and Peter J. Lloyd (eds), Singapore: Resources and Growth. Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1986, pp 279 + xiv. $20.00.

R. J. May (ed.), Between Two Nations. The Indonesia — Papua New Guinea Border and West Papua Nationalism. Robert Brown and Associates, Bathurst, 1986, pp. 260. $13.95.

Shamsul A. B., From British to Bumiputera Rule — Local Politics and Rural Development in Peninsular Malaysia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1986, pp. xxi + 282. $US28.00 (cloth), $US18.00 (paper).

Bernard Swan, Peace and Conflict in a Poor Country: Sri Lanka, AIIA Occasional Paper No. 3, The Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 1986, pp.62 $3.50.

James Manor (ed.) Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis. Croom Helm, London & Sydney, 1984, pp.229 $16.95.

Orlando Fals Borda (ed.), The Challenge of Social Change. Sage Publications, London, 1985, pp.134. £15.95.

National Commission on Disappeared People, Nunca Mas/Never Again, English Translation by Writers and Scholars International Ltd. Faber and Faber, London, 1986, pp.xvi + 463. $24.95.

G. McCormack and Y. Sugimoto (eds.), Democracy in Contemporary Japan. Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1986, pp.272. $29.95 (cloth), $14.95 (paper).

Rokuro Hidaka, The Price of Affluence. Dilemma of Contemporary Japan. Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1985, pp.196. $7.95.

Hans H. Baerwald, Party Politics in Japan. Allen and Unwin, London, 1986, pp. xiv+204. $24.50.

Peter Calvert, The Foreign Policy of New States. Wheatsheaf Books, Brighton, 1986, pp. viii + 216. $27.95.

Mohammed Ayoob (ed.), Regional Security in the Third World: Case Studies from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Croom Helm, London and Sydney, 1986, pp. 284. $49.95.

R.J. Vincent (ed.), Foreign Policy and Human Rights — Issues and Responses. Cambridge University Press, in association with The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Cambridge, 1986, pp.283. $84.00.

R.J. Vincent, Human Rights and International Relations. Cambridge University Press, in association with The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Cambridge 1986, pp 186. No price given.

Gerard Chaliand and Jean‐Pierre Rageau, Strategic Atlas: World Geopolitics. Penguin Books, Hammondsworth, 1986, pp. 224. $16.95.

John H. Makin, The Global Debt Crisis: America's Growing Involvement, Basic Books, New York, 1984, pp. 281. $34.95.

Bruce R. Scott and George C. Lodge (eds), U.S. Competitiveness in the World Economy. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass, 1985, pp.x+543. $40.95.

Desmond Ball, A Base for Debate. The US Satellite Station at Nurrungar. Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1987, pp. 122. $9.95.

E. M. Andrews, The Writing on the Wall: The British Commonwealth and Aggression in the East 1931–1935. Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1987, pp. KV+228. $29.95.

Lawrence T. Farley, Plebiscites and Sovereignty: The Crisis of Political Legitimacy. Westview Press, Boulder, and Maunsell Publishing, London, 1986, pp. xiv+179. £16.95.

Edwin E. Moise, Modern China: A History. Longmans, New York, 1986, pp.xvi+256. $22.95.

Mark Mancall, China at the Center: 300 Years of Foreign Policy. The Free Press, New York, 1984, pp. xvii+540. $59.95.

Penny Kane, The Second Billion: Population and Family Planning in China. Penguin Books Australia, Ringwood, 1987, pp. 264. $14.95.

Germain A. Hoston, Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1987, pp. xviii+401. $US40.00 (cloth), $US15.00 (paper).

William S. Turley, The Second Indochina War: A Short Political and Military History, 1954–1975. Westview Press, Boulder, and Gower, London, 1986, pp. xvii, 238. $US35.00.     

The Prestige of Australian State Supreme Courts Over the 20th Century

This article measures the prestige of the Australian State supreme courts and examines competing explanations for differentials in their prestige over the course of the 20th century. The study finds that the prestige of the State supreme courts are positively correlated with the reputation of their Bench, proxied by the number of High Court judges from that State; socioeconomic diversity in that State, proxied by the State's population; and legal capital, proxied by the number of pages of the official law reports of the State supreme court.     

(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.     

Mind the gap: Town planning and Manchester's local railway network: 1947–1996

This article uses Manchester as a case study to explore post‐war relationships in Britain between local rail networks and urban form. During this period, Manchester's rail network has been severely rationalized with only limited investment in new infrastructure, although local services have been underpinned by public subsidy. During the 1950s and 1960s, there was little formal land use planning policy with regard to the rail network, but in the late 1970s strategic policies crystallized which sought to steer major activity generators to nodalities generally well‐served by public transport. However, these policies were undermined in the 1980s by Thatcherite deregulation. The early 1990s has seen more positive trends with the opening of Manchester's light rail line and the development nationally of policies aimed at creating more sustainable urban form through synergy between local rail networks and urban development. But there is evidence of counter‐trends and the whole future of the rail system has been thrown into doubt because of rail privatization. Conclusions are drawn that focus on the need for changes in the institutional arrangements for transport planning and strategic town planning through the creation of a strong regional tier of government, as found in other EU countries.     

Are Households Universal? On Misunderstanding Domestic Groups in Swaziland

‘Household’ is not the neutral, universal category that census-takers have lulled us into believing, but a culturally-loaded, historically specific, Western term, like ‘family’. This article demonstrates its inappropriateness in capturing the nature of domestic organization in Swaziland through a critical examination of attempts to reduce the indigenous domestic unit umuti (rural homestead) to various constellations of household. The patrilineal homestead on traditionally tenured land persists as the dominant domestic group despite urbanization and the deep penetration of the economy by market principles. The relationship between this homestead and the more ephemeral urban households, into which many of its members are continually dispersed, underlies the linkage between urban and rural areas. Without grounding our understanding of contemporary Swazi society in the rural homestead we fail to understand female-headed domestic groups, domestic cycles, and the location and dynamics of poverty and wealth.     

Resources Versus Results: Comparative Performance of State Highway Systems, 1984–1990

This article compares the relative performance of the U.S. and the 50 state highway systems against resources available, over the period 1984–1990. Data are collected on 13 measures of revenues, expenditures, pavement condition, congestion, bridge condition, and accidents. Statistics are normalized to control the effects of size and inflation. Each state's performance is then graded according to whether the state is making progress, holding steady, or losing ground relative to the national trends. Findings show that the U.S. highway system is in good condition and is continuing to improve: even statistics on congestion are now beginning to show improvement. Against this general improvement six states have been able to maintain or improve their highway systems with considerably less resources per mile than other states. These states are New Mexico, South Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Arkansas. Each of these stales seems to have a combination of geography, traffic, economic structure, and fiscal capability that results in particularly cost-effective highway systems. The findings suggest that simplistic explanations of performance based on location, urban/rural distinctions, weather, climate, or taxes are inadequate; more research is needed to explain the causes of these differences.