A trade balance: litigation and negotiation in the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement system

The establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been widely accepted as representing the legalisation of world trading rules. However, it is important to reflect on the limits of this legalisation thesis in terms of the interface between international and domestic policy processes. By locating trading disputes in a political analysis of policy implementation, it is argued that it is difficult to establish conceptually how the WTO dispute settlement system could have authority separate from and above the conventional international politics of trade policy relations. Instead, the article argues that case outcomes should be expected to be largely the product of domestic political institutions and policy processes, and how these intersect with developments in the WTO dispute settlement system. Brief studies of the Australian government's dispute settlement strategy and two high-profile WTO disputes—the US upland cotton and European Union sugar cases—serve to suggest that the authority of international trade law is not as significant as assumed by the legalisation thesis. Rather, domestic politics and institutions have an important impact on the outcome of trade disputes.     

All Things Depending: Renewing Interdependence in Oceania

ABSTRACT Despite the enormous efforts made to civilize the Hawaiian, the Maori, the Samoan, and Fijian, Islanders have not forgotten all of their stories and in fact many Pacific peoples are in a position to recover much of the knowledge that sustained communities for thousands of years. There is hope in what we have done to reclaim our heritages—finding our voices in our languages, stories, and songs, our perspectives in our arts and literatures, our muscle and will in our own political advocacy and pursuit of our rights in courts and international arenas. There is need, however, for a new vision that reunites human beings with all of their relations in the world, a vision necessary to sustain a very difficult struggle.     

Book reviews

Australian Politics

Scott Bennett, Affairs of State: Politics in the Australian States and Territories (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1992) pp.230. $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 093 1.

Verity Burgmann, Power and Protest: Movements for Social Change in Australian Society (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1993) pp.302. $24.95 ISBN 1 86373 211.

J.R.G. Butler (ed.), Federalism and Public Policy, Intergovernmental Grants and Health Care Financing (Canberra: Federalism Research Centre in association with National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, 1991) pp.141. $12.95 ISBN 0 7315 1119 0.

Frank Farrell, Themes in Australian History: Questions, Issues and Interpretation in an Evolving Historiography (Kensington: University of NSW Press, 1992) pp.221. $24.95 ISBN 0 86840 212 5.

James A Gillespie, The Price of Health: Australian Governments and Medical Politics 1910–1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.358. $49.95 ISBN 0 521 38183 5.

Barry Jones, Sleepers, Wake! Technology and the Future of Work (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990) pp.285. $16.95 ISBN 0 19 553146 9.

Roger McDonald, Reflecting Labor: Images of Myth and Origin Over 100 Years (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 1991) p.49. $7.50 ISBN 0 642 10537 5.

Terry Newman, Hare‐Clark in Tasmania: Representation of All Opinions (Hobart: Joint Library Committee of the Parliament of Tasmania, 1992) pp.319. $39.95 ISBN 0 7246 3876 8.

Peter Vintila, John Phillimore and Peter Newman (eds), Markets, Morals and Manifestos: Fightback! and the Politics of Economic Rationalism in the 1990s (Perth: Institute for Science and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, 1992) pp.274. $18.95 ISBN 0 86905 233 0.

Michael Howard, ’Fightback!’ or Setback? The Cuts to Public Expenditure in the Hewson Package (Sydney: Public Sector Research Centre, University of New South Wales, 1992) pp.134. $15.00 ISSN 10348 569X.

Comparative and International Politics

John Allen, Peter Braham and Paul Lewis (eds), Political and Economic Dimensions of Modernity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992) pp.440. $37.95 ISBN 0 7456 0962 7.

Ian Bellany, A Basis for Arms Control (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1991) pp.155 $n.p. ISBN 1 85521 051 7.

Henry Brandon (ed.)? The Future of U.S.‐European Relations: In Search of a New World Order (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1992) pp.177. $19.95 ISBN 0 8157 1058 5.

Alison Broinowski, The Yellow Lady, Australian Impressions of Asia (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992) pp.260. $39.95 ISBN 0 19 553382 8.

Robert L. Canfield (ed.), Turko‐Persia in Historical Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 1991) pp.256. $120.00 ISBN 0 521 39094 X.

Henry Frendo, Party Politics in a Fortress Colony: the Maltese Experience 2nd ed. (Valetta, Malta: Midsea Publications, 1991) pp.243. $n.p. no ISBN.

Gwendolyn Gray, Federalism and Health Policy: The Development of Health Systems in Canada and Australia (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991) pp.281. $Canl9.95 ISBN 0 8020 6862 6.

Susan Kaufman Purcell and Robert M. Immerman (eds), Japan and Latin America in the New Global Order (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992) pp.163. SUS9.95 ISBN 1 55587 316 2.

St John Kettle and Stephanie Dowrick (eds), After the Gulf War: For Peace in the Middle East (Sydney: Pluto Press, 1991), pp.134; $9.95 ISBN 0 949138 69 X.

Andrew Ross (ed.), The Military Significance of the Gulf War (Canberra: Australian Defence Studies Centre) pp.79. $10.00 ISBN 0 7317 0191 7.

Ronald T. Libby, Protecting Markets: U.S. Policy and the World Grain Trade (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992) pp.152. $US26.50 ISBN 0 8014 2617 0.

T.B. Millar and James Walter (eds), Asian‐Pacific Security After the Cold War (London: Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, University of London, 1992) pp.125. £8.50 ISBN 1 85507 044 8.

John Morrison, Boris Yeltsin. From Bolshevik to Democrat (Melbourne: Penguin, 1991) pp.303. $16.95 ISBN 0 14 017062 6.

Cornelia Navari (ed.), Conditions of States: A Study in International Political Theory (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991) pp.228. $ 39.95 ISBN 0 335 09667 0.

V. Spike Peterson (ed.), Gendered States: Feminist (Re)Visions of International Relations Theory (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992) pp.225. $US16.95 ISBN 1 55587 328 6.

Edith Rogovin Frankel, Jonathan Frankel and Baruch Knei‐Paz (eds), Revolution in Russia: Reassessments of 1917 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.434. $145.00 ISBN 0 521 40523 8.

B. Guy Smith, The Politics of Taxation: A Comparative Perspective (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.338. $39.95 ISBN 1 55786 211 7.

Ramesh Thakur (ed.), The South Pacific: Problems, Issues and Prospects (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1991) pp.232. $49.95 ISBN 333 55704 2.

Political Theory and Methodology

Perry Anderson, A Zone of Engagement (London: Verso, 1992) pp.384. $39.95 ISBN 0 86091 595 6.

Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust (Cambridge: Polity, 1991) pp.338. $34.95 ISBN 0 7456 0930 9.

Paul Buhle, Marxism in the USA (London: Verso, 1991) pp.302. $34.95 ISBN 0 86091 547 6.

Hal Draper (edited and with an introduction by E. Haberkern), Socialism from Below: Essays Selected (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1992) pp.282. SUS25.00 ISBN 0 391 03732 3.

Richard E. Flathman, Wilful Liberalism: Voluntarism and Individuality in Political Theory and Practice (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992) pp.232. SUS15.35 ISBN 0 8014 9955 0.

Norman Frohlich and Joe A. Oppenheimer, Choosing Justice: An Experimental Approach to Ethical Theory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992) pp.258. SUS45.00 ISBN 0 520 07299 5.

Agnes Heller and Ferenc Feher, The Postmodern Political Condition (Cambridge: Polity, 1991) pp.167. $32.95 ISBN 0 7456 0929 5.

George Armstrong Kelly, The Humane Comedy: Constant, Tocqueville and French Liberalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp.262. $120 ISBN 0 521 41227 7.

David Keyt and Fred D. Miller Jr (eds), A Companion to Aristotle's Politics (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1991) pp.407. $45.00 ISBN 1 55786 098 X.

Chantal Mouffe (ed.), Dimensions of Radical Democracy (London: Verso, 1992) pp.254. $ 34.95 ISBN 0 86091 556 5.     

What Can Causal Process Tracing Offer to Policy Studies? A Review of the Literature

Causal process tracing (CPT) has emerged as an important method of causal inference in qualitative social science research, most notably in case study research designs. There is now a considerable literature on the aims, philosophical groundings, and methods of process tracing. This paper reviews the CPT literature to assess what new directions it may suggest for policy studies. The first part of the paper sets out the methodological advantages CPT offers in building and testing theories of policy change, most notably in supporting a theoretical pluralism to address the problem of complexity in policy studies. Building on recent scholarship across the social sciences, the second part examines step by step the recently minted “best practice” for undertaking CPT in policy studies. This part includes discussion of the possible pitfalls of CPT as a method; common errors involved in its use are set out and minimization strategies offered. In particular, while acknowledging the usefulness of Bayesian tests for causality as heuristic devices, we emphasize the limitations of applying such tests in practice. Possible correctives are suggested. The final part of the paper speculates more generally on the potential of CPT to improve our investigation of patterns of policy change over time.