Book Reviews

Public Enterprise Management: International Case Studies. Ali Farazmand, ed. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. 312p. ISBN: 0–313–28025–8. (Contributions in Political Science, no. 370. ISSN 0147–1066).

As a contribution to the ongoing discussion of options for state economic action, Public Enterprise Management: International Case Studies demonstrates both the strengths and weaknesses of a multi–author, cross–national approach. Ably edited by Ali Farazmand, who contributed a useful introductory chapter, the volume deals with a spectrum of public enterprises, as locally defined, in contexts as different as those of the United States, Nicaragua, and Pakistan.

While the “one chapter, one nation” approach may guarantee some level of international interest, it often sacrifices depth of analysis to the recurring need to describe local circumstances. Such is the case in Public Enterprise Management. Admittedly, the work contains a wealth of data and a useful breadth of coverage. However, it lacks the more realized treatment of fundamental issues often found in more extended considerations. Although the obligation to review the work as written is acknowledged, it is difficult for this reviewer not to imagine how much better fundamental issues might have been treated if fewer authors had been allocated more space—admittedly at the expense of multi–national coverage.

As written, Public Enterprise Management is often an ex post facto analysis. It is difficult to read Dwivendi and Phidd’s fairly timely “Public Enterprises: The Canadian Experience” without wondering how their conclusions might have been impacted by more recent cost–cutting and privatization debates, particularly in the province of Ontario. In political arenas increasingly dominated by the ideology of the profit paradigm, Canada’s status as a “middle–way” between Europe and the United States may have been seriously eroded. Similar observations can be made about a number of the work’s other chapters. Still, even as a work of modern history, Public Enterprise Management remains instructive.

Given the ongoing dispute over the role of government in various national contexts, Public Enterprise Management works best a source of baselines against which to measure current and future changes. In itself, that role invites purchase of the work.

About the author

William Crowley is Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois