paper 0-520-21344-0 A strong yet impartial look at the beginning of the end of affirmative action in the US, by a self-proclaimed recipient of its benefits. The fantastically misnamed California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), which became Proposition 209 on the 1996 ballot and was passed by state voters, was intended “to end the use of race and gender preferences in state employment, contracting, and education.” As such, it went beyond the landmark US Supreme Court case of University of California v. Bakke (1978), which declared affirmative action programs that looked only at race unconstitutional. Ch†vez (Journalism/Univ. of Calif., Berkeley) traces how Glynn Custred and Thomas Wood, two disgruntled academics, and Ward Connerly, an African-American appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to the University of California’s Board of Regents, launched the initiative, after Wilson had effectively stripped the state educational system of affirmative action programs, with Connerly’s inside help. Wilson hoped to ride the issue to his ultimately abortive presidential campaign. Bob Dole’s nomination complicated the issue for CCRI’s proponents, as neither Dole nor running mate Jack Kemp was willing to disavow affirmative action entirely. The opposition to 209 came from a “forced marriage” between white liberal women in the San Francisco area led by Patricia Ewing and blacks and Latinos around Los Angeles led by former Black Panther Anthony Thigpen. The question of whether CCRI was more racist or anti-woman fractured the opposition, and their use in commercials of David Duke’s visit to California to speak in favor of CCRI seemed distasteful to many. They also had to contend with President Clinton’s refusal to denounce 209 directly, as well as the general public’s inability to understand the legalese of the initiative, especially given its misleading name. In the end, however, the opposition was simply outspent. Ch†vez skillfully shows the upside and downside to each argument and each outcome, and her ability to turn the subject of a plebiscite into a compelling, widely relevant, and instructive study is admirable.
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-520-20687-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1998
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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