Blood,honor, reform,and God: anti-dueling associations and moral reform in the Old South

Scholars have written extensively on dueling and honor in the antebellum period, but most have neglected or dismissed the work of anti-dueling associations. Anti-dueling activists staked a claim to public power by challenging duelists’ claims to mastery. The history of the organizations provides evidence that the South was home to many similar societies dedicated to public activism and moral uplift. Their work illustrates the incapacity of the law, in a period of social transformation on the eve of the sectional crisis, to produce social reform without community support and the commitment of authorities to safeguard public order.     

The Sources of Support for Separatism: Public Opinion in Three Soviet Republics

Abstract. The replacement of the Soviet Union by independent states rather than by a loose confederation of component republics reflects (in part) the demands for change that were being expressed by mass publics. What caused the people to reject decentralisation of authority within the existing state structure and chose rather to support movements that insisted on the establishment of independent states? We examine whether concerns about ‘discriminatory redistribution’ and ‘cultural preservation’ were more important than questions of ‘efficiency’ or ‘relative deprivation’ as motivations behind support for secession. The analysis is based upon public opinion data from Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania gathered in May of 1990 and in June of 1991. We conclude that although issues related to cultural preservation and discriminatory redistribution were foremost in the minds of separatists, concerns about efficiency and improved management in government are also relevant for understanding support for separatism.     

Environmental Health Policy in Ukraine After the Chernobyl Accident

The 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine produced severe environmental health problems. This paper reports on the environmental health conditions in Ukraine after the accident and the health policy approaches employed to respond to the environmental conditions and health problems. Crisis conditions and a period of rapid change in Ukraine contributed to the difficulties of developing and implementing policy to address serious environmental health problems. Despite these difficulties, Ukraine is taking effective action. The paper describes the primary environmental health problem areas and the efforts taken to solve them. The effect of intense public fear of radiation on policymaking is described. The paper discusses the ability of public fear to distort health policy towards certain problems, leaving problems of greater importance with fewer resources.     

STATE PER CAPITA INCOME CONVERGENCE SINCE 1950: SHARECROPPING'S DEMISE AND OTHER INFLUENCES*

ABSTRACT. Prevailing theories wrongly attribute post-1950 convergence of state per capita incomes to (1) neoclassical adjustment mechanisms, (2) institutional sclerosis, and (3) southern industrialization. But convergence-essentially a weakening of southern poverty–resulted mainly from the South's overcoming its legacy of slavery: the sharecropper-tenant system, agricultural dependence, high black population percentages, poor education, and low wage rates. Sharecropping was the dominant feature; abject poverty among sharecroppers dragged southern income to its knees. Sharecropping's collapse and attendant South-to-North migration affected the legacy's other features in ways that raised income. Manufacturing growth and transport improvements caused relative income in the West to decline.     

Book reviews

Australian politics

Paul R. Bartrop, Australia and the Holocaust 1933–45 (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 1994) pp.304 $34.95 ISBN I 875606 12 2.

Ross Fitzgerald, ’Red Ted’ The Life of E.G. Theodore (St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1994) pp.474 $24.95 ISBN 0 7022 2649 1.

Ian Gray, Politics in Place: Social Power Relations in an Australian Country Town (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.214 $45.00 ISBN 0 521 40426 6.

Mike Nahan and Tony Rutherford (eds), Reform and Recovery: An Agenda for the New Western Australian Government (Perth: Institute of Public Affairs, March 1993) pp.253 $21.50 ISBN 0 909536 39 2.

Dean Jaensch, The Liberals (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1994) pp.240 $19.95 ISBN 1 86373 361 2.

C.B. Schedvin, In Reserve: Central Banking in Australia, 1945–75 (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992) pp.602. $49.95 ISBN 1 86373 371.

Susanna Short, Laurie Short: A Political Life (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1992) pp.299 $29.95 ISBN 1 86373 188 I.

Julie P. Smith, Taxing Popularity: The Story of Taxation in Australia (Canberra: Federalism Research Centre, 1993) pp.172 $n.p. ISBN 0 7315 1508 0.

Jenny Stewart, The Lie of the Level Playing Field: Industry Policy and Australia's Future (Melbourne: Text Publishing Co., 1994) pp.305 $19.95 ISBN 1 86372 037 5.

Phillip Toyne, The Reluctant Nation: Environment, Law & Politics in Australia (Sydney: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1994) pp.228 $17.95 ISBN 0 7333 0375 7.

Ken Walker (ed.), Australian Environmental Policy (Kensington: New South Wales University Press, 1992) pp.306 $29.95 ISBN 0 86840 029 7.

Comparative and international politics

Gary D. Allinson and Yasunori Sone (eds), Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993) pp.311 SUS16.95 ISBN 0 8014 8096 5.

Barbara Callaway and Lucy Creevey, The Heritage of Islam: Women, Religion, & Politics in West Africa (Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994) pp.221 $US19.95 ISBN 1 55587 253 0.

Helena Catt and Elizabeth McLeay (eds), Women and Politics in New Zealand (Wellington: Political Science in association with Victoria University Press, 1993) pp.151 $n.p. ISBN 0 86473 260 0.

Ann Millar, Trust the Women: Women in the Federal Parliament (Canberra: Department of the Senate, 1993) pp.194 $29.95 ISBN 0 642 19523 4.

David F. Ericson, The Shaping of American Liberalism: The Debates Over Ratification, Nullification and Slavery (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1993) pp.238 $n.p. ISBN 0 226 21684 5.

John Francis, The Politics of Regulation: A Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.289 $45.00 ISBN 0 631 17467 2.

B.D. Graham, Representation and Party Politics: A Comparative Perspective (St Leonards NSW: Allen & Unwin/Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) pp.261 $45.00 ISBN 0 631 17396 X.

Carol Graham, Peru's APRA: Parties, Politics, and the Elusive Quest for Democracy (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.267 $US37.50 ISBN 1 55587 306 5.

Joseph Held (ed.), The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992) pp.435 $29.95 ISBN 0 231 07696 7.

R.A. Herr and B.W. Davis (eds), Asia in Antarctica (Canberra: Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University with Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre, 1994) pp.232 $n.p. ISBN 0 86740 426 4.

Michael Hill, Understanding Social Policy, 4th edn (Oxford UK and Cambridge USA: Blackwell, 1993) pp.230 $45.00 ISBN 0 631 18849 5.

Robin Jeffrey, What's Happening to India? Punjab, Ethnic Conflict and the Test for Federalism, 2nd edn (London: Macmillan, 1994) pp.252 $36.95 ISBN 0 333 59444 4.

Joel S. Kahn and Francis Lob. Kok Wah (eds), Fragmented Vision: Culture and Politics in Contemporary Malaysia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1992) $24.95 pp.327 ISBN 1 86373 167 9.

Andrew Mack and John Ravenhill (eds), Pacific Cooperation: Building Economic and Security Regimes in the Asia‐Pacific Region (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1994) pp.269 $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 605 0.

Anne McElvoy, The Saddled Cow: East Germany's Life and Legacy (London: Faber and Faber, 1992), pp.258 £14.99 ISBN 0 671 16691 6.

Gaines Post, Jr, Dilemmas of Appeasement: British Deterrence and Defence 1934–37 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1993) pp.363 $US53.35 ISBN 0 8013 27487.

David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (London: Viking, 1993) pp.576 $45.00 ISBN 0 670 85236 8. Gale Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.319 $n.p. ISBN 0 19 506645 6.

Brian Roper and Chris Rudd (eds), State and Economy in New Zealand (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp.276 SNZ36.50 ISBN 0 19 558273 X.

Peter Self, Government by the Market? The Politics of Public Choice (London: Macmillan, 1993) pp.317 $29.95 ISBN 0 333 56972 3.

Mitchell A. Seligson and John T. Passé‐Smith (eds), Development and Underdevelopment: The Political Economy of Inequality (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993) pp.456 $US22.00 ISBN 155587 400 2.

Martin Shaw, Post‐Military Society: Militarism, Demilitarization and War at the End of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991) pp.229 $32.95 ISBN 0 7456 0199 5.

Hugh Smith (ed.), Peacekeeping: Challenges for the Future (Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre, Australian Defence Force Academy, 1993) pp.229 $20.00 ISBN 0 7317 0274 3.

Stephen John Stedman (ed.), Botswana: The Political Economy of Democratic Development (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp.214 $US35.00 ISBN 1 55587 305 7.

Stephen John Stedman (ed.), South Africa: The Political Economy of Transition (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp.213 $US38.00 ISBN 1 55587 421 5.

Lionel Cliffe et al, The Transition to Independence in Namibia (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1994) pp.293 $US38.50 ISBN 1 55587 420 7.

Dan Tschirgi (ed.), The Arab World Today (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rlenner, 1994) pp.274 $US18.50 ISBN 1 55587 459 2.

Thomas G. Weiss (ed.), Collective Security in a Changing World (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp.332 $US35.00 ISBN 1 5587 338 3.

Robert W. Gregg, About Face? The United States and the United Nations (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner, 1993). pp.180 $ US16.95 ISBN 1 55587 406 1.

Robert Zuzowski, Political Dissent and Opposition in Poland: The Workers’ Defense Committee ‘KOR’ (Praeger: Westport, 1992) pp.293 $US65.00 ISBN: 0 275 94138 8.

Political Theory and Methodology

Geoffrey Brennan and Loren Lomasky, Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) pp.237 $99.00 ISBN 0 521 35043 3.

Alain Lipietz, Towards a New Economic Order: Post Fordism, Ecology Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp.199 $34.95 ISBN 0 7456 0866 3.

Graham Little, Friendship. Being Ourselves with Others (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 1993) pp.272 $24.95 ISBN 1 86362 024 3.

John Locke, Political Writings (ed. David Wootton), (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1993) pp.479 $17.95 ISBN 0 14 043310 4.

Martin Loughlin, Public Law and Political Theory (Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1992) pp.292 $34.95 ISBN 0 19 876268 2.

Philippe Van Parijs (ed.), Arguing for Basic Income: Ethical Foundations for a Radical Reform (London and New York: Verso, 1992) pp.248 $39.95. ISBN 0 86091 586 7.