Book reviews

Transmigration in Indonesia, by J M Hardjono. Oxford in Asia Current Affairs. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press 1977; xv, 116 pp, 8 maps, 15 tables. £6.00.

Myths and Legends of Indonesia, by Jan Knappert. Singapore: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia) Ltd, 1977; 198pp. £2.40.     

Book reviews

The Indonesian Tragedy by Brian May, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978, pp. xvii, 438. £8.95.

Comment fut tranchée la liane céleste, et autres textes de littévature orale bunaq (Timor, Indonésie), edited by Claudine Friedberg from the collection and translations of Louis Berthe, Paris: Société d'Études Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France (Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale 25), 1978; pp. 294, 8 plates, 2 maps and several figures in the text.     

Mother-Die: Plant Names and Folk Beliefs

The use of the name mother-die for cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris (L.) Hoffm.) and beliefs associated with this name are examined, as well as the beliefs found to be essentially those of the twentieth century most prevalent in northern England. Other plants which have been called mother-die, plus other names given to cow parsley, are also discussed, as are folk beliefs associated with these names.     

Practices of Illegalisation

This article contributes to theorising the often unrecognised continuities between the illegalisation of migrant and refugee mobilities as an effect of lawmaking or other state practices of border policing and immigration law enforcement and the illegalisation of the rights, claims, and juridical status of minoritised citizens. Against a backdrop of resurgent right-wing nationalisms, we pursue this transversal analysis of state practices of illegalisation to draw attention not only to labour subordination and disposability but also the more fundamental relationship between law and terror. The making of such regimes of citizenship takes place in obvious ways at the ostensible outer edges of nation-state territories. They are also replicated in the various spatial arrangements that ensure racialised dispossession within global cities, cities that are better understood as reconfigurations of settler-colonial cities. We argue that the study of practices of illegalisation allows critical poverty scholarship to better discern how sociopolitical categories and classifications that are central to wider processes of marginalisation and domination may arise or be reinforced as effects of the state’s legal productions of illegality.     

When Will New Programs be Mandatory? Determinants of the Decision Between the Mandatory and Discretionary Budget Designs

When creating a new program, an authorizing committee must choose a budget structure, either using mandatory funding or creating an authorization for appropriations to enable the appropriation committees to use discretionary funding. One hypothesis we examine is based on the strategic interplay by congressional committees seeking to control their policy domains. Based on expected purposes of a nascent program, an authorization committee must calculate, whether, if a program is designed as requiring appropriations for spending, will the appropriators provide the funds? Or if instead, a program is funded through mandatory spending, will those funds be blocked by appropriators? For example, when a new program is likely to offer credit claiming opportunities to Congress, such as through legislative earmarks, the authorization committees are less likely design a program to rely on mandatory funding. An alternative hypothesis is that where there is greater expected difficulty in predicting likely program needs—e.g., predicting the annual spending needs for unemployment insurance—a mandatory structure would be expected. We find that the hypothesis associated with the committees' pursuit of autonomy is supported, whereas the rational design hypothesis associated with reduced transaction costs is not supported.