Capsule Reviews

Most observers would concur with Barkan's view that democracy cannot thrive without an effective and influential legislature to balance the power of the executive. Since most of the recent defects in governance in Africa can be blamed on unaccountable leaders, this view seems particularly germane to democracy there. Yet, oddly, the evolution and current state of legislatures in Africa have attracted little attention. This collection of case studies of the legislatures in Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda begins to rectify this oversight.

Brautigam situates the current relationship between China and Africa within a historical framework that goes back to the 1960s. Bucking the conventional wisdom that China's substantial increases in aid to the region are motivated by short-term commercial and strategic interests, Brautigam's lively and thoroughly documented account emphasizes that Chinese motivations are broader and more long term. The book starts with a revealing history of Chinese involvement in the region, beginning with agricultural and infrastructure projects in the 1960s.

This symposium uses the Marxist-inflected theory of globalization known as world-systems theory to view some familiar topics through a fresh lens, although it is often blurred by jargon. Subjects addressed include how China's engagement with global capitalism has contributed to the rise of far-flung production networks, the shift of manufacturing to the East, the growing Asian resource hunger, and new geopolitical rivalries.

John Service was one of several China hands fired from the U.S. State Department for questionable loyalty in the early 1950s. His trouble started when he got entangled in the inquiry into the leaking of classified documents by federal employees to the academic journal Amerasia, a spy case that turned out to be more about FBI misconduct than Soviet espionage. He was not indicted, but the investigation led to his interrogation before a series of State Department and congressional committees and to his firing.