The Age of Commodity: Water Privatization in Southern Africa, David A. McDonald and Greg Ruiters, eds., London and Sterling, VA: Earthscan Press, 2005, pp. xv, 303.

This collection of essays is a cutting-edge study of neoliberal public service reform in Southern Africa. While most studies of water privatization, such as Karen Bakker's An Uncooperative Commodity: Privatizing Water in England and Wales (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) and Vandana Shiva's Water Wars (Cambridge: South End Press, 2002), have concentrated on the transfer of ownership and control from the state to private corporations, privatization is more broadly defined to include the transfer of ownership and/or decision-making responsibility to NGOs and community organizations. The editors rightly emphasize, moreover, that privatization is not the only disturbing trend in public service reform. Corporatization—the creation of publicly owned and operated companies that run like private businesses—threatens to entrench the discriminatory aspects of infrastructure distribution that characterized colonialism and apartheid in the region in the previous era.

Les systèmes électoraux et les modes de scrutin, 3eédition, Pierre Martin, Paris : Montchrestien, 2006, 156 pages.

Dans la troisième édition de son ouvrage Les systèmes électoraux et les modes de scrutin, Pierre Martin avance deux idées principales. La première est que les modes de scrutin sont les produits des systèmes politiques “ et vice versa ” (p. 10). Par cette position, l'auteur rejette le déterminisme sous-jacent à certaines études sur les modes de scrutin qui tendent à “ surestimer leur effet ” (p. 135). Après tout, analyse-t-il, “ [l]eur influence sur la structuration des systèmes partisans et la répartition des votes des électeurs entre les partis est faible et absolument pas décisive. ” La deuxième idée, complémentaire de la précédente, soutient que “ les systèmes partisans résultent principalement de l'influence de la sociologie et de l'histoire ” (p. 113).

Sustainability and the Civil Commons: Rural Communities in the Age of Globalization, Jennifer Sumner, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005, pp. viii, 179.

As we are continually reminded, Canada is now an overwhelmingly urban country. Mythic vastness notwithstanding, most of its people and certainly its mobile “creative class,” presumed driver of the knowledge economy, live in major cities, whose policy requirements have captured a good deal of national attention in the past decade. By contrast, rural Canada has been reduced to the status of the space in-between. Its resource-based communities and livelihoods—farming, fishing, forestry—live with the downward price pressures of global commodity trade as well as the most intractable trade disruptions. Its public services and social infrastructure have been diminished. Aside from pretty places that have become recreational or residential enclaves, its population typically is declining and aging. Its widespread sense of abandonment so far has generated only inchoate, perhaps incoherent political responses. Meanwhile, the growing consensus among newspaper editorialists and think-tank policy specialists is that “dependent” and “unsustainable” rural Canada has been subsidized long enough for sentimental reasons at the expense of real needs elsewhere.

Redrawing Local Government Boundaries: An International Study of Politics, Procedures, and Decisions, John Meligrana, ed., Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004, pp. 246.

Canadian readers will appreciate this book because it shows us that we are not alone. Our perennial obsession with adjusting, sometimes completely redrawing, local-government boundaries has its counterparts near and far. There is a trajectory and a pattern: Senior levels of government generally want to see local governments with larger territories. However, the decision-making and implementation processes, and the results of those processes, have scarcely been examined or compared from an international perspective. Even policy makers often have been in the dark about others' best (or worst) practices. This book is therefore very useful.

Structuring Conflict in the Arab World: Incumbents, Opponents, and Institutions, Ellen Lust-Okar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. 279.

For a very long time, the scholarship on Middle Eastern politics has suffered from scarce use of the analytical tools provided by the field of comparative politics. The result has too often been descriptive research in the anthropological style. Such studies lacked the rigour necessary for providing cumulative knowledge and theoretical insight. In recent years, however, an increasing number of scholars have been recognizing the value of complementing their in-depth knowledge of the region with appropriate social science theories. New theoretically oriented scholarship—produced by Mark Tessler (Area Study and Social Science, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), Carrie Wickham Rosefsky (Mobilizing Islam, New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), Quintan Wikorowitcz (Islamic Activism, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), Eva Bellin (Stalled Democracy, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), Lisa Anderson (Transition to Democracy, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), and a few others—filled such a need that, as a result of their publication, knowledge of Middle Eastern politics has taken a great leap forward since the early 2000s.

The India-Pakistan Conflict: An Enduring Rivalry, T.V. Paul, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

The rivalry between India and Pakistan has clearly been both deep and enduring. The two sides have fought four wars since attaining independence in 1947, and have waged a low-intensity conflict in the disputed territory of Kashmir since the late 1980s. And despite recent improvements in Indo-Pakistani relations, their fundamental political and territorial disagreements remain unresolved. However, it is not obvious why the two countries' relationship has been so stubbornly antagonistic. The India-Pakistan Conflict: An Enduring Rivalry, edited by T.V. Paul, addresses this issue. Specifically, the volume asks: Why has the Indo-Pakistani rivalry been so persistent, even compared to other long-standing conflicts? How have factors at the international, state and leadership levels contributed to this outcome? And why are the prospects for achieving a negotiated settlement of the rivalry so dim?

Reclaiming the Enlightenment: Toward a Politics of Radical Engagement, Stephen Eric Bronner, New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, pp. xiii, 181.

I am very sympathetic to the project that Stephen Eric Bronner undertakes in this book. As someone inspired by the progressive potential of the Enlightenment, I find myself constantly on the defensive in a world deeply suspicious of the dead white men of eighteenth-century Europe. So I welcome a vigorous and uncompromising defence of those men and the ideals and values they stood for. For those of us who already see ourselves as working to further that tradition, this book is an inspiring call to keep up the good work. But for those who have been hesitant in their enthusiasm for the Enlightenment, this book will be more like a red flag waved in their face, confirming many of their suspicions of Western rationalism. Theorists of recognition, identity, post-colonialism, post-modernism, republicanism, communitarianism, post-secularism and multiple-modernities, are just some of the people who will not find this book very congenial. Ultimately, Bronner's uncompromising defence of the Enlightenment is less successful than it might have been.

Contention & Democracy in Europe, 1650–2000, Charles Tilly, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. xiv, 305.

A leading historical sociologist, Charles Tilly brings skills from both disciplines to this exercise in democratic analysis. The result provocatively illuminates democracy as it developed in Europe and advances challenging hypotheses for contemporary democratic theory and practice. Tilly applies carefully formulated categories and explanatory hypotheses to his subject in a way atypical of most historians while tempering the often inflexible approaches of sociological theory with an historian's sensitivity to nuance and complexity.

Development Projects for a New Millennium, Anil Hira and Trevor Parfitt, Westport, Conn, and London: Praeger, 2004, pp. 216.

This is a book aimed at readers who work in the “aid business”. These include officials of bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, and the non-government organizations and consultancies working on contract for or independent of the official agencies. Its fundamental premise is that aid works best if it helps its ultimate beneficiaries realize their own goals. Much of the book provides an analysis of how the purveyors of aid can go about achieving this objective.

Politics, Institutions, and Fiscal Policy: Deficits and Surpluses in Federated States, Louis M. Imbeau and Francois Petry (editors), Studies in Public Policy; Toronto: Lexington Books, 2004, pp. 239.

Despite the continual attention by the public, the media and politicians on governmental deficits, surpluses and governmental debt over the past decade, the political science literature in this area is sparse. When political scientists do venture into this area, they are unduly influenced by economic considerations rather than using political-institutional explanations. Happily this volume avoids the usual approaches and instead emphasizes political variables. In particular, the editors and authors highlight the importance of the proximity of elections, the ideology of the incumbent party, and the severity of established anti-deficit policies.

Quelle formation pour l'éducation à la citoyenneté?, Sous la direction de Fernand Ouellet, Québec : Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2004, 246 pages.

Face à la baisse du taux de participation aux élections et à l'accentuation du pluralisme dans un monde où les frontières sont de moins en moins étanches, le gouvernement québécois a institué des réformes ayant comme objectif d'inclure au curriculum une éducation à la citoyenneté. Différents penseurs s'interrogent sur le rôle des enseignants et sur la formation nécessaire en vue de cet enseignement. Quelle formation pour l'éducation à la citoyenneté, sous la direction de Fernand Ouellet, est le produit de ces préoccupations.

Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis, Paul Pierson, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004, pp. xii, 196.

Political scientists of the world unite against the decontextual revolution; you have nothing to lose but your n! Okay, there is no such call to arms in Paul Pierson's important new work, but his book is a well-crafted shot across the bow of the dominant strains in political science. As Pierson sees it, too much of political science scholarship rips politics from its historical and institutional context for the sake of generating carefully bounded causal arguments that are often misleading, if not dead wrong, about the sources and effects of political stability and change. Thus, the aim of Politics in Time is to critique and offer an alternative approach to the tendency of analyzing politics by “reducing a moving picture to a snapshot” (104).

The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics, Stephen Clarkson, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. xii, 335.

Stephen Clarkson's The Big Red Machine offers an insightful chronicle of the Liberal Party of Canada's electoral behaviour over a period of thirty years. By bringing together revised versions of his previously published accounts of the Liberal Party's successes and failures in the nine general elections held between 1974 and 2004, Clarkson provides a unique opportunity for serious reflection on Liberal Party dominance of twentieth-century Canadian politics. Beyond that, however, his accessible and compelling presentation of the story of Liberal electoral politics offers a nostalgic review of the events and personalities that shaped the political journey from Pierre Elliott Trudeau to Paul Martin. In accomplishing this, Clarkson has produced a book that will be of as much interest to non-academic followers of Canadian politics as it is to serious students of partisan politics.

Droit, territoire et gouvernance des peuples autochtones., OTIS, Ghislain (sous la direction de), Québec : Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2004, 197p.

Les relations entre les peuples autochtones et les pouvoirs politiques canadiens n'ont pas toujours été—et ne sont pas forcément aujourd'hui—salutaires. Historiquement, une litanie de conflits et d'interminables procès attestent que le gouvernement fédéral a souvent fait preuve d'une profonde incompréhension envers les revendications et les pratiques ancestrales des Premières nations. Malgré des séries d'événements regrettables, le gouvernement canadien semble aujourd'hui faire preuve d'une volonté politique visant à apporter des changements de fond dans l'état de ses relations avec les peuples autochtones, ainsi qu'une amélioration de leurs conditions de vie. Depuis le rapatriement de la constitution et avec l'adoption de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1982, plus précisément de son article 35 qui assure une reconnaissance des droits des peuples autochtones, d'autres événements ont renforcé cette perception de volonté politique. Notons d'une part la publication du rapport final de la Commission royale sur les peuples autochtones, publié en novembre 1996 et présentant une série d'environ 440 recommandations qui ont pour objectif une modification manifeste des relations entre les Autochtones, les allochtones et le gouvernement; et d'autre part celle du Guide de la politique fédérale sur l'autonomie gouvernementale des Autochtones, qui propose la création d'un partenariat historique permettant la négociation d'ententes visant l'autonomie gouvernementale.

La bioéthique dans la perspective de la philosophie du droit., Francesco D'Agostino, Québec : Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2005 (Collection Dikè), 137p. [Titre original : Bioetica, G. Giappichelli Editore, Torino, 1998].

Ce livre de quatorze chapitres présente les questions les plus préoccupantes soulevées par la bioéthique contemporaine et débute avec un constat qui ne laisse aucun doute sur l'horizon philosophique de l'auteur : “ […] c'est la notion même de vérité qui s'affaiblit dans un horizon culturel (postmoderne) dans lequel il est désormais impossible d'élaborer un discours prenant la vérité comme référence ” (p. 1). Le lecteur est immédiatement mis en présence de l'enjeu qui en découle pour la bioéthique : l'absence de normes universelles en lesquelles tous reconnaissent l'expression de la vérité sur l'humain réduirait la bioéthique à une simple casuistique privée de sens. La bioéthique tourne à vide car nous serions devenus indifférents à la vie. Selon l'auteur, le contexte philosophique et culturel qui marque notre époque (postmoderne) ne permettrait pas un véritable “ engagement pour la vérité ”. On ne saurait ici s'engager dans une réflexion sur le sens de la postmodernité, mais il importe de noter que ces prémisses sont hautement contestables à plusieurs points de vue et que l'interprétation des conséquences métaphysiques, épistémologiques et sociopolitiques de la postmodernité suscite de nombreuses controverses. Une chose est certaine : on préfère toujours prendre des décisions dans un contexte de stabilité épistémologique et sociopolitique, mais ce contexte est rarement disponible. De plus, et surtout, un jugement éthique exclut presque par définition ce contexte de stabilité. Selon une grande tradition morale qui remonte à l'époque hellénistique, le jugement éthique est précisément appelé par des conditions inédites; il repose sur la créativité et sur une certaine expérience de la vie.