Booknotes

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2004.00397.x
• Date: 01 July 2004
• Published date: 01 July 2004

Booknotes 505

The material in Booknotes is based

on information obtained either from

publishers or from the books them-

selves. Authors and publishers inter-

ested in having their books included

in Booknotes or considered for review

should send two copies to the book

review editor. Books listed in this sec-

tion may be included in a book review

essay later.

Bowman, Ann O’M., and Michael

A. Pagano. 2004. Terra Incognita:

Vacant Land and Urban Strategies.

Washington, DC: Georgetown Univer-

sity Press. ISBN:1-58901-007-8.

Analyzing the data collected

from a comprehensive survey

sent to all U.S. towns with a

population greater than 50,000,

this book examines how local

governments make decisions re-

garding the use of vacant land

(brownfields, trashed lots, aban-

doned buildings, greenspace,

etc.). Based on three major im-

peratives of cities’ strategic be-

havior such as fiscal, social, and

development imperatives, the

authors investigate the dynamics

of strategic decisions of vacant

land uses in local governments.

The book encourages local gov-

ernments to consider vacant land

to be a great resource and to

make strategic choices about va-

cant land use reflecting a city’s

priorities and needs.

Cox, James H. 2004. Reviewing

Delegation: An Analysis of the Con-

gressional Reauthorization Process.

Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN: 0-275-

97852-4.

Cox examines how Congress at-

tempts to control public policy

by choosing to (or not to) reau-

thorize existing programs. He

first surveys the previous litera-

ture of congressional oversight,

looking at the abdication view of

congressional control, congres-

sional dominance theory, and the

trade-off model of institutional

choice. He then extends the

trade-off model, using econom-

Booknotes

ic-organization literature and

transaction-cost theory to ex-

plain how “enacting coalitions

handle the tradeoff between

maintaining coalitions and guid-

ing implementation decisions.”

The book also incorporates qual-

itative and quantitative studies to

show how Congress uses reau-

thorization procedures to “re-

duce the total enforcement costs

of controlling outcomes.”

Espeland, Wendy Nelson. 2004.

The Struggle for Water: Politics, Ra-

tionality, and Identity in the Ameri-

can Southwest. Chicago, IL: Univer-

sity of Chicago Press. ISBN:

0-226-21794-9.

Espeland examines the case of

Orme Dam in central Arizona to

show how political actors seek

to enact individual policy pref-

erences that are mediated by le-

gal, organizational, cultural, and

historical attributes. For ex-

ample, the organizational ideol-

ogy of the Bureau of Reclama-

tion, long reflecting an engineer-

ing ethos, generated protracted

political battles among three

major groups: the old guard at

the bureau, the new guard, and

the Yavapai community. These

battles led to institutional trans-

formation of the bureau. The

book concludes that a better un-

derstanding of the complex rela-

tions among rationality, interests,

and the identity of institutions

will lead to a better understand-

ing of bureaucratic authority and

contemporary politics.

Morgan, Ruth P. 2004. Governance

by Decree: The Impact of the Voting

Rights Act in Dallas. Lawrence, KS:

University Press of Kansas. ISBN: 0-

7006-1307-2.

To show the effect of the Voting

Rights Act on Dallas, Morgan

discusses the act itself, legal

cases arising from it, and the con-

sequences of the act for local

governance. In three main parts

—political participation and the

law, the context for political par-

ticipation in Dallas, and the leg-

acy of legislation and litigation

—the book addresses how “the

Congress and the federal courts

veered off course into an entan-

gling net of contradictions when

they attempted to advance the

political standing of discrete

groups.” The author makes spe-

cific policy recommendations to

be taken up by Congress, the fed-

eral courts, and citizens.

Morse, Suzanne W. 2004. Smart

Communities: How Citizens and Lo-

cal Leaders Can Use Strategic Think-

ing to Build a Brighter Future. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 0-

787965-162.

From research conducted by the

Pew Partnership for Civic

Change, Morse derives a set of

practical principles and exam-

ples of how strategic decision

making can be applied at the

community level. To build a civic

infrastructure and create commu-

nity readiness, local polities

should invest right the first time,

work together, build on commu-

nity strengths, practice democ-

racy, preserve the past, foster

grassroots leaders, and invent a

brighter future.

Rogers-Dillon, Robin H. 2004. The

Welfare Experiments: Politics and

Policy Evaluation. Stanford, CA:

Stanford University Press. ISBN: 0-

8047-4730-X.

Rogers-Dillon examines how a

new policy idea becomes a fully

implemented policy, arguing that

policy experiment is often intro-

duced as an effective and pow-

erful political strategy. In par-

ticular, the author shows how

initially unpopular reform ideas

were experimented with at the

state level, went on to gain wide

political support, and became

crucial to welfare reform. Chap-

ters cover various topics, includ-

ing the politics of pilot programs,

experimental designs, the history