LITERATURE REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article:
A. Comments
B. Book Notes
Abney, Glenn and Thomas P Lauth The Politics of State and City Administration
Adams, William J and Christran Stoffaes, (eds) French Industrial Policy
Binkin, Martin, Military Technology and Defense Manpower
Elazar, aniel J Cities of the Prairie Revisited The Closing of the Metropolitan Frontier
Ginsberg, Benjamin The Captive Public How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power
Heath, Robert L and Richard Alan Nelson Issues Management Corporate Public Policymaking in an Information Society
Hunt, Morton Profiles of Social Research The Scientific Study of Human Interactions
Kaplan, Marshall and Peggy Cuciti (eds) The Great Society and itsLegacy wenty Years of U S Social Policy
Katz, Michael B In the Shadow of the Poorhouse A Social History of Welfare in America
Katzmann, Robert A. Institutional Disability The Sage of Transporation Policy for the Disabled
Liroff, Richard A Reformaing Air Pollution Regulation The Toil Trouble of EPA's Bubble
Lowi, Theodore J The Personal President Power Invested Promise Unflfilled
Mead, Walter J, Asbjorn Moseidjord, Dennis D Muraoka, and Philip E Sorenson Offshore Lands. Oil and Gas Leasing and Conservation on th Outer Continental Shelf
Muskie, Edmund, Kenneth Rush, and Kenneth W Thompson The President, the Congress and Foreign Policy
Openshaw, Stan Nuclear Power. Siting and Safety
Peters, B Guy American Public Policy Promise and Performance
Rosentraub, Mark S, (ed) Urban Policy Problems Federal Policy and Institutional Change
Story, Dale Industry, the State, and Public Policy in Mexico
Taylor, Ralph B, (ed) Urban Neighborhoods Research and Policy
Wesson, Robert and Heraldo Munoz, (eds) Latin American Views of U S Policy
Winston, Brian isunderstanding Media
Zurcher, Louis A, Milton L Boykin, and Hardy L Merritt Citizen Sailors in a Changing Society Policy Issues for Manning the United StatesNaval Reserve     

LITERATURE REVIEWS

A. Comments
B. Book Review Essay
Philip E Converse and Roy Pierce Political Representation France (Cambridge. MA and London Harvard University Press. 1986 ). 996 pp
Daniel Gaxie. ed, Explication du Vote (Paris Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Poiitlques. 1985 ). 450 pp
Jack Hayward. The State and the Market Economy industrial Patnotism and Economic lntervention in France (New York New York University Press, 1985 ). 267 pp
Howard Machin and Vincent Wright. eds, Economrc Policy-Making Under the Mitrerrand Presidency, 1981–1984 (New York St Martin's Press, 1985 ). 293 pp
C. Book Notes
Beldon, Joseph N Dirt Rich .
Brown, William P and Don F Hadwiger (eds) World Food Policies Toward Agricultural Interdependence
Weiss, Thomas G Multilateral Development Diplomacy in UNCTAD
Schultze, Charles L Other Times. Other Places Macroeconomic Lessons Form US and European History
Collingridge, David and Colin Reeve Science Speaks to Power The Role of Experts in Policymaking
Feller, Irwin Universities and State Governments A Study in Policy Analysis
Cawson, Alan Corporatism and Political Theory
Lefort, Claude The Political Forms of Modern Society Bureaucracy, Democracy, Totalitarianism
Lehne, Richard Casino Policy
Moorhouse, John C Electric Power Deregulation and the Public Interest
Wright, James D and Peter H Rossi Armed and Considered Dangerous A Survey of Felons and their Firearms
Kluegel, James R Beliefs About Inequality America's Views of What is and What Ought to Be
Raskin, Marcus G The Common Good Its Politics, Policies, and Philosophy
Schorr, Alvin L Common Decency Domestic Policies After Reagan
Davies, David G United States Tax and Tax Policy
Lee, Dwight R (ed) Taxation and the Deficit Economy Fiscal Policy and Capital Formation in the United States
Teplitz, Paul V and Stephen H Brooks Alternative Tax Proposals How the Numbers Add Up     

Nationalism,patriotism, or national reference? A response to Jacopo Custodi

Jacop Custodi elaborated recently a response to our article “A nationalist party with non-nationalistic voters? Discussing the limits of nationalism in party categorisation” published in the journal Nations & Nationalism. We consider the work of Custodi is an important and original contribution to the study of left politics and nationalism. This being said, we reflect on the negative consequences of overstretching the category nationalism, both referring to parties and to political discourse. The aim of this reply is unpacking and explaining these negative consequences and offering an alternative as well as responding to some specific points raised by Custodi in his reply.     

Evidence on economies of scale in local public service provision: A meta-analysis

The standard theory of optimal jurisdictional size hinges on the existence of economies of scale in the provision of local public goods and services. However, despite its relevance for forced local amalgamation programs and related policies, the empirical evidence on the existence of such economies of scale remains elusive. The main goal of this paper is to produce an updated and comprehensive quantitative review of the existence of economies of scale in the provision of local public goods using a meta-analysis approach to systematize the wide range of empirical approaches and modeling frameworks found in the previous literature. Our analysis confirms the presence of moderately increasing to constant returns to scale in the provision of local services with no reduction in the average costs of production in the delivery of most local public services beyond a certain, modest jurisdictional size, which many studies have estimated at 10,000 residents. Also, the potential for economies of scale differs at least across three traditional services: education, water and sanitation, and garbage collection, being highest for education and lowest for garbage collection. Our analysis also offers guidelines for future empirical research in this area. Physical output and production cost data should be used, together with translog specifications for the modeling of cost functions. Last, we find evidence that the determinants of output cost elasticity include bidirectional publication bias and population density but do not include the presence or absence of modern “lean” production technologies or the (perceived) capital intensity of the sector, contrary to conventional wisdom. These findings have significant policy implications for countries considering jurisdictional consolidation programs.     

Inter- and intraregional inequality in a spatial economy

In this paper, we develop a three-region economic geography model with workers of heterogeneous skills and mobility rates to consider how first-nature, regional differences impact both inter- and intraregional inequality. In our model, the skill premium within a region summarizes both the degree of intraregional inequality between mobile, skilled workers and immobile, unskilled workers and the interregional inequality through differences in the welfare of unskilled workers across regions. Regions with the highest skill premium have the greatest degree of intraregional inequality and provide the lowest level of welfare to unskilled workers, relative to other regions. We find that the skill premium will be higher in regions with a greater supply of unskilled labor, lower supply of housing, or are more remote. An increase in a region's housing supply or centrality will lower intraregional inequality and raise the welfare of the local, unskilled workforce. However, the magnitude of these changes are declining in the initial number of skilled workers in the region. The model is extended to consider imperfectly elastic housing supply. The larger the price elasticity of housing, the larger the range of values, such that more populated regions will host a disproportionate share of skilled workers, have lower levels of intraregional inequality, and provide higher levels of welfare for unskilled workers.     

SOCIAL CHANGE AND METALWORKING IN THE EARLY IRON AGE: AN APPROACH FROM NORTH-WEST IBERIA

This paper analyses social transformations in the Early Iron Age based on a holistic and longue durée approach applied to the first fortified habitats in the Iberian north-west. Through a comprehensive review of two paradigmatic settlements of the EIA in the province of A Coruña (Galicia, north-west Iberia), Punta de Muros and A Graña, a comparison is drawn between the social and territorial dynamics of this period by means of an in-depth analysis of the main characteristics of both settlements. Accordingly, a greater level of social complexity during the phases of occupation of the settlement of Punta de Muros has been identified, in contrast to the resistance to change observed in A Graña. Based on these conclusions, the role of metalworking and its symbolic value in fostering and legitimizing these social and territorial transformations and in the development of Iron Age communities are analysed.