research and, in doing so, implicitly points to one of the major weaknesses of much SouthAfrican work.Part 3 of the book focuses on the growth of the public sector; there are useful chapters on

central±local relations, district planning and the chieftaincy. These and similar issues areexamined in the context of the political arrangements (such as the presidency) that provide theframework for development. In other parts of the book there are useful analyses of publicenterprises, urbanization and the environment, and aid management. A major strength ofseveral contributions is the presentation of an abundance of data concerning, for example,elections, productivity and unemployment.The book avoids overstatement in assessing Botswana and does not go overboard in

attributing its success to the bureaucrats and politicians. It contains, for example, an illumin-ating piece on gender by Selowane which argues that there is an `un®nished agenda' to be takenforward by women's organizations, whilst Edge questions the extent to which the dominanceof public bureaucracy can bring about a `developmental state' on a par with the Asian tigers.There are perhaps two reservations to express. One is the omission of the tough issue of the

Basarwa people of the Kalahari, about whom there has been controversy both in Botswanaand internationally. A review of the arguments that have been deployed by the protagonistswould have been useful, particularly as there are close relationships here between questions ofsustainable development and human rights.The other reservation is that more attempt might have been made to place this country's

experience in a comparative and theoretical context. Edge's overview chapter goes some way inthis direction, but it might have been of interest to take this approach further so that theoutside observer might better understand the signi®cance of this important story at the outset.In terms of the book's structure, a chapter of this sort might have been a valuable precursor tothe historical accounts.Both these publications are valuable additions to the literature on development management

in Southern Africa. It is hoped that they will be core texts for the education and training of awide variety of managers, whether in the public sector or elsewhere.

MALCOLM WALLISUniversity of Durban Westville

HONG KONG PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONA Journal of Policy and Administration in the Asia±Paci®c RegionHong Kong Public Administration Association and City University of Hong Kong (it has nowreached volume 7)

OPTIMUMThe Journal of Public Sector ManagementUniversity of Ottawa and Consultancy and Audit Canada (published in both English andFrench and has been in existence for 26 years)

THE URBAN AGEWorld Bank Group (published quarterly, it is free to subscribers in developing countries andencourages the reprinting and dissemination of its articles)

Most academics when confronted with a new journal are prone to sigh and bemoan the wasteof good paper so that fellow academics may publish rather than perishÐbut three journals!However, the three are quite di�erent in tone, approach and position in the academic peckingorder.Hong Kong Public Administration is the nearest to an academic journal. It has re¯ections on

the UK experience of welfare reform, a discussion on the decentralization of funding foreducation in the Pearl River area (i.e. peasants end up paying for it) and an article with the selfexplanatory title `Whistle blowing: public interest or personal interest? The experience ofa Hong Kong government pharmacist'. That sounds, and is, more readable than `Politicaleconomy of Guandong`s quest for autonomy'.

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Most of these articles are well written, about important topics and have a commend-able degree of academic rigour and detachment. Even an article which contains the words`paradigm',`post-modern', `positivism' and `transcendental illusion' in the same sentence issurprisingly readable and makes important points about policy analysis and planning.The changes in the Hong Kong governance system, and the risk that a di�erent set of

political pressures will cause a highly sophisticated public administration system to lose itsself-con®dence, make a journal of this kind highly relevant. The article on the UK welfarereform experience lists 10 lessons which are relevant to Hong Kong and to less well-favoureddeveloping countries. They include the obvious fact that if the UK has reviewed the role of thestate because it cannot a�ord to do all the welfare/family/social maintenance tasks it hastraditionally done, it might be necessary for other poorer states to do the same to protect theirwelfare programmes. The almost total collapse of health, education and welfare systemsin large parts of Africa, and the threat to them in Asia, must encourage intelligent leaders toreview their approach.Hong Kong Public Administration also has a section entitled `Forum' which allows

individuals to write more personal (and mildly polemical) articles on current issues suchas `Freedom of information in Hong Kong' and (on the importance of) `Serving theCommunity'. This more personal approach is closer to the essence of Optimum, which acts as aserious but readable in-house magazine for the Canadian public service. The articles rangefrom `Risk analysis in a policy framework' (a study of oil spills), to a discussion of publiclyfunded R & D, to a review of the `Blueprint for revising government service delivery usinginformation technology'. There are more personal stories, including one by a writer (andformer civil servant) of Chinese extraction, who rather movingly describes how she came to®nd she was, after all, a Canadian.Optimum also contains short `management education' pieces such as `Leadership and

integrity' and `Restructuring the public service' in which academics, consultants and civilservants discuss some management ideas/truths in order to rally the troops. The journalreminds us just how multi-cultural Canada has now become. In one edition of Optimum onlytwo of the seven authors listed in the front cover have `English' names. This multi-culturalismis re¯ected in the journal itself and is one of its main strengths.Urban Age has a themed approach; for example, the late 1996 edition was subtitled

`Habitat IIÐA Retrospective' and the following issue focused on mayors and partnerships.This approach has the bene®t of collecting a range of short articles, reviews and debates on onetheme. Some issues will be of great value to certain readers, but they may ®nd little to interestthem in the next issue.Being a World Bank publication, one would expect to ®nd (and one does) a selection of

articles which consist of an optimistic and upbeat view of Habitat II, bland comments fromregular members of the conference circuit, and special pleading by consultants who explainwhy their approach is, although not perfect, at least worth further funding. To be fair, thereare also pieces from journalists and practitioners who are only too aware of the failureof Habitat and of the enormous problems faced in `developing partnerships', `buildingorganizational capacity', `minimizing corruption', `involving the public sector', `supportingcivil society' and `developing housing rights'.Urban Age is a useful source of information and a valuable forum for debate. It would be

more valuable if its contributors were a little more self-critical. Most (perhaps many) urbandwellers in the world, including a high percentage in so-called developed countries, live inappalling conditions; the sense of outrage which this fact should engender does not appear inthe pages of Urban Age.

R. THOMASReading University

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# 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Public Admin. Dev. 18, 431±437 (1998)