Holt studies Jamaica,from the emanicpation of the slaves to the labor problems faced by ex-slaves in the 1930s. But the narrow focus is misleading - really Holt writes about "the problem of freedom:" the tast of socializing ex-slaves into becoming productive laborers - the problem of convincing freedpeople that it's in their best interest to labor for tiny wages, for the profit of the wealthy. Another major focus is the inherent contradictions of classical liberalism - economic freedom does and always has required brutal and blatent inequalities in the political and social spheres.

Certainly not everyone will agree with Holt, but his argumentation and analysis are impeccable. If you believe that self-determination and free enterprise are practically the same thing - or if you think that capitalism and democracy are one and the same - you must read Holt's book.

Public participation in public decisions has been an enduring theme promoted by both public administration scholars and practitioners, behind of which has been a fix belief in its positive impact on the quality and responsiveness of public decisions, implementation efficiency and cost-effectiveness, and its potential to unchain the power of public ideas and to develop a strong sense of civic engagement-a subsistence for broader and intense practice of democracy. Beginning with the Great Society legislations of the 1960s that required maximum feasible participation of communities in development projects, the sensibility in favor of a broader public participation has turned to be a mandate. Unorthodox public administration currents, including New Public Administration of the 1970s and 1980s, and New Public Management of the 1990s, have consistently called for broader and engaged public participation in the hope that broader public involvement would bring about wide-ranging benefits, some of which have been mentioned in the preceding lines.

Though fed by a religious-like persuasion, most of the early scholars in the trench of public participation neglected or failed in developing a contingency model of public participation that would help public managers to analyze the context of public participation so that a productive, engaged and distortion-free dialogue process accompanied by public participation could be planned and achieved. Deprived of a fully understanding of a productive public participation process, first public participation initiatives taken by public managers proved to be frustrating for both undertaking public agencies and aspiring community participants.

The book I am reviewing is really such one that comes up with a contingency framework for public participation that thoroughly inquires into "when and how" questions of public participation, with having a number of productive, well-crafted, and context-dependent strategies and recommendations.

Public Participation in Public Decisions is organized around ten major chapters. In the first three chapters of the book, Thomas (1995) gets readers to three points. First, the author criticizes the orthodox public administration theory due to its lack of enthusiasm for public participation; second, justifies the necessity for public participation with numerous reasons; and finally, points to the importance of finding a "practical" approach to public involvement for making it really work rather than keeping it as "rhetoric". From the fourth to the eight chapters, Thomas (1995) explains the important parameters in public participation process. The parameters point out the critical decision points as to when and how public administrators should involve citizens in public decisions. In the ninth chapter, Thomas (1995) pays attention to the new forms of public involvement including ombudspersons and action centers, co-production and volunteerism. The tenth chapter includes a summary view and concludes with some recommendations to the public administrators for them to be effective in the age of public participation and involvement.

The Effective Decision Model Thomas (1995) advances throughout the book rests on the organizational participation process developed by Vroom and Yetton (1973). Thomas (1995) proposes five options for decision making: (1) autocratic or autonomous decision-making, with no public involvement or influence; (2) modified autonomous public decision making in which the manager seeks information from segments of the public, but decides alone in a manner that may or may not reflect the group influence; (3) consultative decision making, with a limited but significant public role; (4) segmented public consultation in which the manager shares the problem separately with segments of the public, getting ideas and suggestions, then makes a decision that reflects group influence, and; (5) public decision making, with the extensive influence of a decision made jointly by the manager and the public (p. 39). To make the long shorter, two points are important. First, public participation does not suggest, all the time, direct and bodily involvement of public. Second, the influence of public increases as the public manager moves on from the first to the fifth option.

For the question of which decision-making option public managers should opt, Thomas (1995) develops mainly two parameters: the need for quality and the need for acceptability of a decision. In cases when the technical standards and requirements (quality) outweigh the acceptability of public decision by community, Thomas (1995) recommends some degree of public participation, otherwise, an increasing degree of public participation. In cases where the need for decision quality and decision acceptability are equally important, the author recommends a number of decision options to be used in combination. In addition to the two main parameters, there are a number of other questions that would help public managers to analyze the context, for example, such as the structure of the problem, composition of the relevant public, and conflict or agreement within the relevant public. Thomas (1995) draws so meticulously a framework out of his assessments contingent on the combination of different contextual circumstances that appear in the book as configurations.

I do not take all the "configurations" to the letter to presume the book as a cook-recipe, however, in the book's entirety, I sense them to be really helpful and thought provoking. I recommend patience before turning theoretical understandings into normative roadmaps. This book should encourage the reader to re-configure and re-interpret the parameters and contextual specifics in creative ways, and to add new ones.

Robert Denhardt, in his praise for Public Participation in Public Decisions, remarks that this book "sets the stage for a revitalization of democracy at the local level", and I agree with him. I believe only lamenting for democracy is not enough for making it work. Democracy needs not just a set of normative propositions and institutions but also a number of well-crafted strategies that address the context (see, i.e., Barber, 1984; Forester, 1989; Flyvbjerg, 1998) that would push democracy along. From this angle, Thomas' book is surely a treasure, not only for it demonstrates the challenges ahead but also for it comes with something that can be helpful for "helping" to decide what to do next.

I would highly recommend.

This is the same book, I believe, that was published in Australia, at least, as "Punishment and Profit" by the same author. This may give some other hints if you wish to locate a copy.
Pub: 1970
LOC card No:77-129921

Assuming this is the same work, it is a fascinating document of early colonial life from a recent arrival's point of view. A particularly unusual newcomer at that as Bigge had the task of reporting to Bathurst on the current inhabitants.

The title as published in Australia is, in my view, a good description of what Bigge was asked to look at in Australia. Gov. Macquarie was the subject of a fair amount of criticism for the cost of administering the colony. This was also being triggered by jealous outbursts of local settlers that wanted the convict labour for their use as opposed to the public works that were being carried out. As these public works meant that the convict labourer was, to use the contemporary vernacular, "living off the store" and therefore at the government's expense, these criticisms found a ready ear in Whitehall.

To develop an understanding of what was really happening, Bathurst ordered this inquiry to which Bigge was appointed.

What is perhaps of more lasting interest than the results of the actual inquiry, is the historical record of the various colonial factions and conniving between them that would have made Machiavelli blush. I suspect that these petty jealousies and factionalism had a lot in common in colonial life in other remote colonies.

It is interesting to note the effect that this inquiry had on the local ruling elite (aka the "Merinos") of the time and the increased intensity that this external element in their lives put into these power struggles as one or the other lobbied for influence.

A good book for those interested in this period in Australian history.

If you're interested in reformed theology, the Puritan Bookshelf CDs are a great way to get an extensive library of books, lectures and sermons, for very little expense - and without having to search the world for them in libraries and used book stores. Every CD is packed with a wealth of wisdom and biblical instruction that goes far beyond what is generally seen in our day.

Volume Ten contains eleven books; five massive volumes written by three authors of the 17th century, along with six books by more contemporary covenanters.

"The Works of the Reverend and Learned John Lightfoot" abounds with great history lessons of New Testament times. This book includes a full description of the temple and its service, as they stood in the days when Christ was on earth - complete with a detailed, labelled drawing of the temple, done by the author himself.

Among the many valuable lessons in "The Works of the Judicious and Learned Divine, Dr. Thomas Taylor," is an exposition on Eph. 5:15. The author stresses the importance of the Christian walking circumspectly, demonstrating which areas of life this admonition applies to, and how the Christian is to gain the wisdom he needs in order to obey it. In the words of Dr. Taylor, "A circumspect Christian is not so careful for the... tilling, and sowing of his field, the pruning of his trees, the feeding of his cattle; as in fencing the heart against temptation, in sowing the seed of God's Word, in weeding of sin by the roots out of his soul, in feeding and fostering of grace."

"The Works of the late Reverend and Learned William Bates," contains more than thirty sermons on such practical subjects as forgiveness, the fear of God, and the danger of prosperity. Several of the sermons in this book were preached at the funerals of such eminent and godly men as Thomas Manton, David Clarkson and Richard Baxter.

This is only a glimpse of what is available on these wonderful CDs. I can't recommend them highly enough, to anyone who wants to study Protestant Church History from those who were there.

You can see the full listing for all 32 Puritan Bookshelf CDs online, at Still Waters Revival Books. SWRB also lists a similar set of 30 CDs in their Reformation Bookshelf CD series.

Of all of the meditation books specifically for men, and there really are a number of them, A Quiet Strength is by far my favorite! While it has an issue and meditation for each of the 366 days, I prefer to look up an issue I am dealing with in the index and, every time, I get very pertinent advice. Now and then I leaf quickly through the pages, stopping abruptly and read the section I have stopped on. It always seems to be very pertinent to what is happening in my life at the time. This is well worth the time to search for a copy and encourage (them) to reprint. Your life and those around you will be much the better for it....

I'm just a housewife in North Dakota with not much time to read. But once I started reading The Rawleigh Man Told Me in the evening I could not put it down until I found out what happened to this boy. I had heard about the Orphan Trains, but this is the first time I read a personal story about one of the passengers. I recommend this book to every family, especially to children who may not know how good they really have it. It touched my heart.

"McNally's study is thorough, balanced and professionally critical: a spendid addition to our accumulating knowledge of the Irish Catholic Church." E.R. Norman, Peterhouse, Cambridge University. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 185-86.

This is an eye-opening, basic primer on the various views of resurrection among the early Christians: was there a spiritual or fleshly resurrection and why? The views of Jesus, Paul, and the Gospel of Thomas (spiritual resurrection) are contrasted with the position of the Gospels of John and Luke and Ignatius of Antioch (fleshly resurrection). Chapter One is a must!

In detailing the largest and most significant research study of its type (i.e. The MacArthur Study of Mental Disorder and Violence), Rethinking Risk Assessment describes what is surely to become the seminal work in the area violence and mental illness. The authors point to the methodological flaws in many earlier studies that failed to establish clear links between mental illness and violence. It moves beyond previous studies to point to a clear link between serious mental illness and an increased risk of violence.

Although based upon a North American population (i.e. with its higher societal rates of violence generally) the size of the study, and the relationships it demonstrates suggest that this work has significant implications for other jurisdictions. The book illustrates tools clinicians can use to assist with identification of those with higher for risk of violence.

Although actuarial methods do not offer a panacea for problems associated with risk prediction, they nevertheless provide pointers for increasing the precision with which such assessments can be made. Monahan et. al. acknowledge the limitations of such methods, and point to the complexity of clinical risk assessment for violence potential. The authors also point to the broader contextual, and problematic issues associated with false positives and negatives, in terms of prediction.

Armed with the information contained within this text, clinical staff will have a thorough grounding in the most up to date evidence in the field. This should provide a solid foundation from which staff can approach the complex issue of considering risk assessment generally.

As a second edition, this book is not just an updated version of the original. In fact, it should probably have been called volume 2, instead of second edition. If you have the original, you will want to put this on the shelf next to it. The book covers a great deal in a field that is rapidly moving forward. A must for people interested in what is going on in "the RNA world."