Reviews

Australian

Bateman W. R. G. and Ward M. W. (eds), Australia's Offshore Maritime Interests, Canberra, Australian Centre for Maritime Studies, 1985, pp. 122. $15.00 (paper)

Stephen Castles, Mary Kalantzis, Bill Cope and Michael Morrissey, Mistaken Identity: Multiculturalism and the Demise of Nationalism in Australia, Sydney, Pluto Press, 1988, pp.152. $14.95 (paper)

Roger Gibbins, Federalism in the Northern Territory; Statehood and Aboriginal Political Development, Darwin, North Australia Research Unit, Australian National University, 1988, pp. 148. $14.00 (paper)

Dean Jaensch and Peter Loveday (eds), Challenge From The Nationals: The Territory Election 1987, Darwin, North Australia Research Unit, Australian National University, 1987, pp. 226. $20.00 (paper)

Constance Lever‐Tracy and Michael Quinlan, A Divided Working Class, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988, pp. 338. $29.95 (paper)

Peter Loveday and Peter McNab (eds), Australia's Seventh State, Darwin, The Law Society of the Northern Territory and the North Australia Research Unit, Australian National University, 1988, pp.322. $24.00 (paper)

Geoffrey Skene, Specialities of the House, Department of the Parliamentary Library/Australasian Political Studies Association, 1988, pp.59. $10.00 (paper)

Comparative and international

Chris Bellamy, The Future of Land Warfare, London and Sydney, Croom Helm, 1987, pp.302. £29.95 (cloth)

Cathy Downes Strategic and Defence Studies Centre Research School of Pacific Studies The Australian National University

Melanie Beresford, Vietnam: Politics, Economics and Society, London, Frances Pinter, 1988, pp.242. $19.95 (paper)

Vernon Bogdanor (ed.) Constitutions in Democratic Politics, Gower, for the Policy Studies Institute, Aldershot, 1988, pp.395. $59.00 (cloth)

Barry Coldrey, Faith and Fatherland: The Christian Brothers and the Development of Irish Nationalism 1838–1921, Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 1988, pp. 338. £27.50

John Connell, New Caledonia or Kanaky? The Political History of a French Colony, Canberra, Australian National University, National Centre for Development Studies, Pacific Research Monograph No. 16,1987, pp.493. $25.00 (paper)

Michael Spencer, Alan Ward and John Connell (eds), New Caledonia: Essays in Nationalism and Dependency, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1988, pp.253. $ 19.95 (paper)

Leon Epstein Political Parties in the American Mold, Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Press, 1986, pp. 440. $US27.00 (cloth).

Keith Ewing, The Funding of Political Parties in Britain, Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp. 264. $70.00 (cloth)

Richard Higgott (ed.), New Directions in International Relations? Australian Perspectives, Canberra, Department of International Relations, Australian National University, 1988, pp. 223. $10.00 (paper)

Michael J Sheehan, Arms Control; Theory and Practice, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1988, pp. 188. $34.95 (paper)

Political theory and methodology

Boris Frankel, The Post‐Industrial Utopians, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1987, pp. 303. $29.95 (paper)

P. Gottfried and T. Fleming The Conservative Movement. Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1988, pp.125. US$7.95 (paper)

Peter C. Ordeshook, Game Theory and Politics: An Introduction, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp.511. $47.00 (paper)

A. Teichova, M. Levy‐Leboyer & H. Nussbaum (eds), Multinational Enterprise in Historical Perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 396. $107.00 (cloth).     

CENTRALIZATION AND URBAN SERVICES: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE

The effect on the distribution of urban services of the “geographical fragmentation” of American metropolitan areas into many local government jurisdictions, each with important service responsibilities, is often overlooked. Comparison with Australia, where services are generally administered and financed at the State level, is instructive. Australian centralism tends to have an equalizing effect, largely due to bureaucratic patterns of service delivery, but has also produced both an insensitivity to specialized local factors and an “organizational fragmentation.” Developments in the 1970s suggest improvements in these areas of deficiency.     

Cities without politics

Max Neutze, Australian Urban Policy, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1978.

Leslie Kilmartin and David C. Thorns, Cities Unlimited: The Sociology of Urban Development in Australia and New Zealand, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1978.     

The homicidal nation: An investigation into violence in the United States

Violent crime occupies a central place in American political culture, both as an element of the national character and as the focus of continuing policy debates on issues as disparate as school integration and gun control. This paper seeks to identify the root of the American penchant for violent crime, and for homicide in particular, and sketches its political implications. An “opportunity” model, stressing reaction to social immobility in a society with pervasive achievement‐oriented symbols, provides an appealing approach. It fails to explain, however, the regional violence characterising the South. Institutional factors, notably the weaknesses in a fragmented, locally‐controlled system of law enforcement within a non‐parliamentary democracy, must also contribute to this American problem.