Local government in eastern Europe, establishing democracy at the grassroots

Book reviews chapters written by the individual authors. There is some overlap and some inconsistency in style and the underlying conceptual assumptions but not to the extent that it detracts from the overall thesis. Chapter 1 sets the context by examining the nature of the relationship between land use planning and promotion of urban areas faced with economic and associated change. It reviews the drive to restructure urban economies by creating new roles in the urban hierarchy for the post-industrial city, the characteristics of urban entrepreneurialism which has emerged and evolved over time and the priority given to culture and city marketing in the attraction of inward investment. Reimaging is more than simple promotion, however, as it involves the creation of a favourable place image and a good business environment. Thus attempts have been made in a number of cities to reconstruct the image of the metropolitan area and target specific types of new activity. Whilst the potential of relying on growth coalitions, flagships and cultural programmes is acknowledged caution is urged in terms of "over-promising and underdelivering" (p 43). A detailed discussion is then devoted to the image (re)making in Belfast and the work of the Lagganside Corporation. This chapter asserts that Belfast represents a distinctive approach to reimaging, involving the promotion of a critical mass of physical redevelopment, flagship and prestige projects and the "toleration and at other times outfight promotion of a market led postmodernist design aesthetic which for all its incongruities carries neutral symbolism intended to create images and spaces which dilute the backward looking symbolism evident in the present" (p 53). This is contrasted in two subsequent chapters which detail the image led economic regeneration strategy in Detroit. Attention is paid to the particular political context of Coleman Young and the reliance on the megaproject and a public sector led growth coalition. This urban focus is placed within a broader regional strategic context which hinges on a new approach to industrial policy although it confirms that even such public sector innovation through coalition building and partnership can be made impotent in the face

of powerful corporate restructuring and decision making. Attention then returns to a discussion of the issues associated with social disadvantage in Belfast and the role of public sector housing policy and housing estates. This reviews and challenges the conventional approaches to poverty and disadvantage based on rehabilitation and regeneration. This together with a detailed consideration of marketing approaches leads to the conclusion and advocacy for detailed strategic planning as a necessary prerequisite to urban regeneration. A thoughtful conclusion sets out the i s s u e s - - i n c l u d i n g social justice and e q u i t y - which must be an integral part of an economic regeneration strategy. The book is recommended as an interesting case study of urban regeneration and marketing initiatives. The comparison between Detroit and Belfast is an interesting one as it highlights the complex processes and linkages that form the backdrop to urban restructuring and the challenge to policy makers. The case for an interventionist approach shines through the accounts of the cities but it is important to distinguish who benefits from such reimaging or as is suggested in the book 'reimagined'. It is also worth reflecting on how quickly the context to policy innovation can change as we consider the very marked changing circumstances that have taken place in both Belfast and Detroit since this book was published.

M G Lloyd Centre for Planning Research School of Town and Regional Planning University of Dundee Dundee, UK

Local Government in Eastern Europe, Establishing Democracy at the Grassroots edited by Andrew Coulson

Edward Elgar Aldershot (1995) 304 pp £49.95 hardback Transformation from Below, Local Power and the Political Economy of Post-Communist Transitions edited by John Gibson and Philip Hanson

Edward Elgar Aldershot (1996) 344 pp £49.95 hardback These two edited volumes on local government in Central and Eastern Europe make a substantial contribution to the small but growing body of literature on Central and Eastern European local government. The volume edited by Coulson, Local Government in Eastern Europe, provides first a series of overviews of local government in Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and the Russian Federation. The profiles are not very consistent. They vary in size, from five pages on Latvia to 25 on Romania, and thus in quality and detail. Kenneth Davey gives rather straightforward descriptions of local government in the Czech and Slovak Republics, and Hungary. Campbell gives a short description of the situation in Ukraine, a more detailed portrait of the conditions in the Russian Federation, and a much more interesting chapter on Romania, which looks at the structures and functions, and gives down to earth comments of mayors on the unfavourable conditions. Chapters like this one about Romania give clearly more insight into what happens than the at times superficial descriptions of local government elsewhere in the book. The second part of the book takes up five case studies, on a variety of themes. First there is an interesting chapter on Poland, describing the development of the community in a housing estate in Poznan. The next chapter is a good, small Polish case study on attitudes of citizens towards the central and local authority (in terms of 'who has influence' and 'who can be trusted'). Then follows a chapter on local government and economic devel-

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Book reviews opment in Slovakia; a short, rather general, optimistic version of what local governments can do in this field. The chapter on local government finance in Hungary is more convincing. It argues that a lot has been achieved in a relatively very short period of time, and that local government in Hungary is much better off than many of its Central and Eastern European counterparts. This claim is supported in the chapter by Davey in Gibson and Hanson's book. The last study is on power and structure in Nizhnii Novgorod, St Petersburg and Moscow. Short and interesting, but unfortunately, the three cases presented are not accompanied by any comparative comment. The cases are further developed in Gibson and Hanson's book. The concluding chapter (concerning What East European Democracies might learn from the West) is disappointing. Instead of, or in addition to, this last chapter, a concluding chapter from the editor would have been appropriate. Gibson and Hanson's Transformation from Below, is set up differently. It contains eight studies in Parts I and II (Studies in Democratic Development: Former USSR, and East~entral Europe), three chapters in Part III (Local Power and Economic Change), and an introduction and a concluding chapter by the editors. The central theme of the book is devolution. The importance of local government is justified by the editors in the introductory chapter on two grounds: a political argument (local government is a school for democracy) and an economic argument for devolved local government (basically on fiscal decentralization and economic development) that is supposed to be more efficient. Both arguments are adopted rather uncritically. The arguments do not really come back in later chapters of the book. The first chapter on Russia and the Regions shows nicely the deteriorating lack of control from Moscow, and how leaders of territories and provinces could make use of this, and get away with it. The chapter clearly shows the complexities of devolution, and the overriding importance of national political struggles. After an insightful, lively and personal account of the situation, the author concludes that

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Respect for the law is the most important ingredient of any democracy. If Russia is to become a stable democracy, the ambiguities characterising Moscow's relations with its provinces have to be ironed out. [p 31] It can easily be concluded from the chapter how enormous a task this will be. The next chapter, also on Russia, is by Campbell, who introduces the mutually opposed top-down view on local democracy and a bottom-up view, which operates in a political culture which lacks a strong tradition of popular participation or public accountability. He then analyses related historical traditions which complicate local democracy (like the autocratic style and corruption). Together with a short political account (the distortion of democracy), this is the setting for three case studies. The chapter lacks a concluding section, but is otherwise interesting. Gazaryan and Jeleniewski are responsible for Chapter 3 on Lithuanian local government. They provide a different story in their analysis of the 1990 local government law and the 1994 new system of territorial governance, which seems to be a major improvement over the 'old' law. While the authors note problems in local government, they are appreciative of the progress made in Lithuania. It seems that this small country does not suffer from the extreme problems presented in the two earlier chapters on Russia. This is confirmed to an extent in the later chapter on Latvia. Campbell takes up centrallocal government relations in Romania and Moldova in the lengthy Chapter 4. The chapter discusses Romanian power relations, central-local political opposition and Romania's difficult aim of decentralization while minimizing the political threat. The report on Moldova's local government is embedded in a lively account of the recent history of the country. "Hungary has been, and remains, the pacesetter in local government reform in Central and Eastern Europe." (p 115), and therefore in chapter 5 Davey discusses the revision of the local government system in 1994 in some detail. Interestingly, Davey was also involved in a review meeting of the 1988 local government law. He confirms that indeed Hungary has gone quite far in its development of local government, albeit that critical issues

like the municipal position of the huge number of very small municipalities have not been solved (2900 of the 3 100 municipalities have populations below 10 000 inhabitants). Also in Poland, where 80% of the nearly 2 000 municipalities had a population of fewer than 10000 inhabitants (1990), the small size of local government is critical in defining the tasks and functions, and assessing the capabilities of local government to assume their roles. In the short Chapter 6, it is explained that for political reasons an important planned development (more responsibilities for local government in cities with more than 100000 inhabitants) was stopped. In the next chapter on Poland, Bukowski first describes a short, difficult history of the local coordination commission in Racib6rz, and how this led to a split. This case description is then put in a wide context of post-communist developments in the town, and in Poland at large. Hanspach and Vajdova work on a Czech case of housing policy, privatization and local development. It is interesting enough, but the case takes a municipal approach to the housing problem and, unlike the earlier chapters, has no focus on the themes of power, local government, or local-central relations. Part III of the book deals with Local Power and Economic Change. It contains three lengthy chapters. In Chapter 9 Hanson treats the troublesome centre-periphery relations in Russia's economic transformation, and confirms the chaotic and otherwise problematic situation sketched in earlier chapters by Teague and Campbell. It is described as the "centre-periphery mess" and a "muddle" in the concluding chapter (p 312). This is confirmed and elaborated in chapter 10 by Kirkow on Siberia and the Far East. The cases concern rough political struggles, postcommunist opposition to reform, centre-regional conflicts, and key persons in this difficult 1992 to mid-1994 period of two of Russia's regions. Chapter 11, also by Hanson, is about Estonia, and first describes how it has been possible to proceed successfully with economic reform. Then the chapter jumps to a description of local government and the difficult issue of non-ethnic Estonians (ie Russians). The concluding chapter by the edi-

Book reviews tors is not particularly enlightening. I am left with the view that the book contains sufficient interesting material to come up with more substantive conclusions, and an overall analysis of some of the key themes of the book. The editors also fail to come back to their statements made in the introduction. There are marked differences between the two books in favour of the volume of Gibson and Hanson. Coulson's book was completed in 1993, and the Gibson and Hanson's in 1994/5. It is a pleasure to observe that real development has taken place in the scholarly treatment of local government during these years. O f course, the era of reform is 2 years less young in the second volume, but more important, I believe, is that these 2 years have been used well by scholars to develop their approaches and understanding of the situation. Local Government in Eastern Europe is more on issues of local government structures and functions, Transformation from Below studies processes of local and regional power, and centre-periphery relations. In Coulson's volume, the chapters are largely descriptive, concentrating on the system of local government. In Gibson and Hanson's book, the chapters go much deeper, providing much more insight into what really happens. Most of the chapters in Gibson and Hanson are well worth reading, although the book is not exactly suitable for bed-time reading. In particular, the chapters on Russia and the case of Moldova, leave the reader with distressing impressions. Gibson and Hanson thus also pay more attention to situations in former Russian republics (they go eastward), and this is a notable development. The chapters in their book are also much more critical than their counterparts in Coulson's volume. Gibson and Hanson are to be complimented with bringing together a number of good chapters on Central and Eastern Europe. ! have noted, however, that these chapters deserved a better introduction and concluding chapter. It may be clear that the books are too academic (and too expensive) for most of the local or regional politicians in Central and Eastern Europe. It would therefore be nice if the copyrights of the books could be sold cheaply and be translated locally (I would expect that

the publisher Edward Elgar will not.sell many copies of these two expensive, English books in the region anyway). This would increase access for interested local scholars and decision makers to what the mostly Western European scholars write about their region.

Peter Nientied Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies Rotterdam The Netherlands

Land and Taxation edited by Nicolaus Tideman Shepheard- Walwyn London 181 pp £29.95 hardback

(1994)

Taxes on income and expenditure can be abolished by raising public revenue from the natural source, land. This would restore full employment, banish poverty and sustain economic activity. Too good to be true? Neo-classical economists and their paymasters were so afraid the policy might be implemented, they shrouded the theory in mystery. This quote, off the blurb on the front of Nicolaus Tideman's book, provides an accurate summary of the message of the book. Jointly published with the London-based Centre for Incentive Taxation, it is one of the Georgist Paradigm Series which seeks to promote the economic arguments and policy ideas of Henry George, the 19th century journalist, polemicist and economist, and to bring them into contemporary academic and political debate. This polemical goal of the author's infuses the whole tone of the book. This is not necessarily a criticism in itself. As D N McCloskey has shown us, all economic texts are inherently rhetorical, trying to persuade readers of the truth and acceptability of the arguments contained therein. As such this book and indeed the whole series is to be welcomed. It provides a much-needed breadth of debate within economic literature and challenges many of the assumptions and norms of mainstream economics. However the tone of the challenge to orthodoxy can best be appreciated through a few further quotes: "Inconstancy, thy name is neoclassical economist?" (p 87) proclaims Gaffney in his chapter. And Harrison,

asserting as "beyond doubt" that "economics as a social science is in crisis" (p 171), concludes the volume with the following: There is now no mystery about the source of the problem. To stop Henry George, they had to steal our language. By stealing our language, they stole our minds. By stealing our minds, they stole our lives. Melodramatic? Unfortunately, the mortality statistics bear out this diagnosis . . . . The fight for the integrity of economics is literally a life-anddeath struggle. The significance of that fact, for the evolution of society in the 21st century, is awesome. (pp 173-174). This raises the question in my mind of who the book is addressed to. The authors include professional economists but this is clearly not a direct engagement with the academic economics literature. The extent of referencing indicates that. Is it seeking out the non-economist audience? The tone is deliberately populist but ironically the references to economic literature will probably remain obscure for the more general reader. There is a strong emphasis on policy p r e s c r i p t i o n s - - a s indicated at the o u t s e t - - b u t there are surely doubts about policy proposals which are based on the theoretical inductions of classical economists from the 18th and 19th centuries, supported by deductions from historical illustrations and anecdotes, mainly from the United States. It is not that I am not sympathetic to the challenge to neoclassical orthodoxy - - I am. It is rather that this text is not very persuasive. I found it a dry read, repetitive and rather clumsily organized. The bulk of the book (about a third) is taken up with a monograph by Mason Gaffney on the distinctive nature of land as a factor of production. Thereafter the chapters rapidly become shorter as claims are made for the efficiency of land taxation and the role of Henry George as a wage theorist, and a brief 14 page survey by V H Blundell of the British history of Land Acts between 1947 and 1976 is provided. Fred Harrison's fluent introduction and conclusion are the most convincing. These, together with Blundell's chapter, may prove a useful synopsis of the approach for students of estate/land management, planning and urban studies. But this is really a lost opportunity. The issues are important, not so much for the future of neo-classical econom-

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