Alive and Kicking: Municipal Affirmative Action Policy in Texas Cities, 1980s–1990s

This article evaluates the impact of opposition originating at the national level on affirmative action policies in 13 Texas cities in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We find that increased national hostility to affirmative action in hiring and contracting has had little effect on the content and strength of affirmative action programs in Texas municipalities. In fact, most programs have been maintained or strengthened since the 1980s. However, there is no clear and consistent relationship between the strength of municipal programs and either minority political representation or the size of a city's minority population. City size appears to be a relevant, but not decisive, factor in maintaining comprehensive policies. As such, we explore two additional hypotheses—policy time lag and bureaucratic insulation—to account for the survival and strengthening of municipal affirmative action policies in the 1990s.     

A comparison of the treatment of errors in radiocarbon dating calibration methods

The application of radiocarbon dating to archaeological samples generally requires calibration of ¹⁴C dates to calendar ages and interpretation of dating errors. In this paper, four recent methods of age calibration are assessed, particularly with regard to their quality of error treatment. Recent experimental research has suggested that commonly quoted errors on “raw” ¹⁴C dates may require enlargement to more realistic levels, which, when incorporated in the calibration schemes, produce a considerable increase in the size of the typical calibrated interval. A general decrease in the sensitivity of ¹⁴C dating using single, “normal precision” dates is implied. Thus typical calibrated age intervals range from 300 to 1300 years (approximate 95% confidence level), with little improvement resulting if “high precision” calibration systems are used to correct “normal precision” dates. Of the four methods considered here, that proposed by Neftel is found to provide the most objective, flexible, comprehensive and “easy to use” scheme. This method is particularly recommended for its treatment of errors both on the dates to be calibrated and on the calibration curve itself.     

Book reviews

Desmond Ball (ed.). Australia and the World: Prologue and Prospects. Canberra: Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 1990. xxxvi + 471 pp. A$20.00 (paper).

Ralph Pettman. International Politics: Balance of Power, Balance of Productivity, Balance of Ideologies. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, 1991. x + 252 pp. A$17.99 (paper).

Roger E. Kanet and Edward A. Kolodziej (eds.). The Cold War as Cooperation: Superpower Cooperation in Regional Conflict Management. London: Macmillan, 1991. xv + 439 pp. A$126.00 (hardcover).

Richard J. Krickus. The Superpowers in Crisis: Implications of Domestic Discord. Washington and Sydney: Pergamon‐Brassey's, 1987. xiii + 236 pp. £32.00 (hardcover), £14.95 (paper).

Khosrow Fatemi (ed.). Selected Readings in International Trade. New York and London: Taylor and Francis, 1991. vi + 179 pp. £21.00.

Richard D. Robinson (ed.). The International Communication of Technology: A Book of Readings. New York, Taylor & Francis, 1991. viii + 227 pp. £35.

Allan Webster and John Dunning (eds.). Structural Change in the World Economy. London: Routledge, 1990. xiii + 244 pp. A$105.00 (hardcover).

Graeme Cheeseman and St John Kettle (eds.). The New Australian Militarism: Undermining Our Future Stability. Sydney: Pluto Press, 1990. 231 pp. $14.95 (paper).

Christine Jennett and Randal G. Stewart (eds.). Hawke and Australian Public Policy. Melbourne, Macmillan, 1990. x + 422 pp. A$29.95 (paper).

Hugh V. Emy and Owen E. Hughes. Australian Politics: Realities in Conflict, 2nd edition. South Melbourne, Macmillan, 1991. ix + 577 pp. $34.95 (paper), $69.95 (hardcover).

Rosemary Whip and Colin A. Hughes (eds.). Political Crossroads: The 1989 Queensland Election. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1991. xv + 280 pp. $29.95 (paper).

Alan Burnett with Thomas‐Durell Young and Christine Wilson (eds.). The ANZUS Documents. Canberra Studies in World Affairs no. 28. Canberra: Australian National University, Department of International Relations, 1991. 315 pp. A$20.00 (paper).

Frank Donini. Anzus in Revision. Alabama: Air University Press, Maxwell Airforce Base, 1991. xvi + 203 pp. n.p.g.

Patrick Brogan. Eastern Europe, 1939–1989: The Fifty Year War. London: Bloomsbury, 1990. 281 pp. A$24.95 (paper).

Robert Miller. Soviet Foreign Policy Today: Gorbachev and the New Political Thinking. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1991. 220 pp. A$17.95 (paper).

Paul Craig Roberts. Alienation and the Soviet Economy. The Collapse of the Socialist Era. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1990. xxvi + 123 pp. Second Edition. US$14.95 (paper) US$29.95 (hardcover).

Olga A. Narkiewicz. The End of the Bolshevik Dream. Western European Communist Parties in the Late Twentieth Century. London, Routledge, 1990. vi + 196 pp. A$89.95 (hard cover).

John Girling (ed.). Human Rights in the Asia‐Pacific Region. Canberra Studies in World Affairs no. 29. Canberra: Department of International Relations, Australian National University, 1991. vi + 111 pp. A$15.00 (paper).

Lea Jellinek. The Wheel of Fortune: The Histoty of a Poor Community in Jakarta. Sydney: Allen & Unwin ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series, xxviii + 214 pp. $24.95 (paper).

Anton Lucas. One Soul One Struggle. Region and Revolution in Indonesia. Sydney. Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with Allen and Unwin, 1991. xxvi + 301 pp. including maps and plates. A$24.95 (paper).

Robert Cribb. Gangsters and Revolutionaries: The Jakarta People's Militia and the Indonesian Revolution 1945–1949. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, Asian Studies Association of Australia, Southeast Asian Publications Series, no. 20, 1991. xii + 222 pp. Maps, photographs, index, bibliography. A$24.95 (paper).

Richard Tanter and Kenneth Young (eds.). The Politics of Middle Class Indonesia. Clayton: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1990. ii + 187 pp. No price given (paper).

Andrew MacIntyre. Business and Politics in Indonesia. Southeast Asia Publications Series No. 21. North Sydney: Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with Allen and Unwin, 1991. xv + 282 pp., including index. $24.95 (paper).

Humphrey McQueen. Japan to the Rescue. William Heinemann Australia, 1991. 345 pp., index, bibliography. A$24.95 (paper).

Masaya Shiraishi. Japanese Relations with Vietnam: 1951–1987. Ithaca: Southeast Asian Program, Cornell University, 1990. ix + 164 pp. US$12.00

Henry P. Frei. Japan's Southward Advance and Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1991. xvii + 303 pp. A$34.95 (hardcover).

Malama Meleisea. Making of Modem Samoa: Traditional Authority and Colonial Administration in the Modem History of Western Samoa. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, 1987. xi + 280 pp. US$12.00 (paper).

Malama Meleisea (ed.). Lagaga. A Short History of Modem Samoa. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, 1987. xx + 225 pp. US$12.00 (paper).

Dora Alves (ed.). Cooperative Security in the Pacific Basin: The 1988 Pacific Symposium. Washington: National Defense University Press, 1990. 346 pp. n.p.g.

Dora Alves (ed.). Change, Interdependence and Security in the Pacific Basin: The 1990 Pacific Symposium. Washington: National Defense University Press, 1991. 395 pp. n.p.g.

Jonathan Unger (ed.). The Pro‐Democracy Protests in China: Reports from the Provinces. Armonk, NY, M.E. Sharpe, 1991. xii + 239 pp., map, index. US$15.95 (paper), US$35.00 (hardcover).

Ruth Cherrington. China's Students: The Struggle for Democracy. London: Routledge, 1991. xi + 239 pp. A$89.95 (hardcover).