276 Book Reviews

considerable repetition of ideas, jargon is unchecked (on the ‘multi-flow communication process’ for example); and there are a number of general and unoriginal contributions which could have been left out or, at the best, briefly summarized. For example, a 1970 conference address by Dudley Seers on ‘The Meaning of Development’ must fall into this category.

The editors’ own contributions and their selection of papers indicate the general thrust of their approach to rural development. Put simply, the editors believe (1) fanners and rural-dwellers should always be consulted on planned initiatives or investments; (2) the ‘change agent’ should be more than a technical adviser: he should be familiar with the social context of rural production systems; (3) the policy of concentration upon more progressive farmers should be abandoned; and (4) the main efforts in field research, should be prior to any intervention, not-as often happens--ex post.

These are now ‘mainstream’ beliefs, and some may seem fairly obvious to people coming to this field for the first time. The book-a ‘reader’-might have served its purpose better by illustrating the views of those, in agricultural extension especially, do not subscribe to such beliefs.

JOHN HOWELL Agricultural Administration Unit Overseas Development Institute

POLICY-MAKING IN A NEW STATE: PAPUA NEW GUINEA, 1972-77 Edited by J. A. Ballad University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1981, 331 pp.

This book examines how policy was made in Papua New Guinea during the transitional period from Australian colonial rule to independence; nearly all the contributors actively participated in the events which they describe. It is a worthwhile publication, though its value for me would have been enhanced if Dr. Ballard, the editor, had added a concluding chapter, carrying the story forward to 1980. This would have broadened the perspective and, perhaps, have given the book more cohesion than it now possesses.

The post-war structure of policy-making is revealed as centralised, bureaucratic and ill-adapted to chang+‘even the standards of high school toilets were determined in Canberra’ (p. 21). Nationalism was therefore intimately linked with decentralization and provincial government became a politically-loaded issue with which the inexperienced coalition government of Michael Somare was ill-equipped to deal. John Ballard gives a fair and balanced account of the way in which provincial governments were established and rightly claims that their establishment constituted the most radical reform of the inherited colonial structure. Bob Standish examines the impact of policy-making in Simbu Province and concludes, not surprisingly, that policy-making is not always a consistent or rational process; he was unwise to generalise about provincial government from Chimbu’s limited experience, especially at a time when most provinces were still absorbed in establishing their machinery of government. John Ballard again has a good chapter on ‘Reforming the Bureaucratic Heritage’: he rightly castigates the Public Service Board (later Commission) as ‘a bastion of tradition’, which was ‘isolated from and insensitive to the main centres of policy initiative’ (pp. 93, 87), but he might have given more attention to the serious administrative consequences of the Board’s combining responsibility for both personnel and management matters.

Ross Garnaut provides an informed account of macro-economic policy-making: while he is correct to point out, in effect, that the provincial leaders who pressed for decentralisation were not willing to pass a self-denying ordinance in favour of the poorer provinces, he is probably over-optimistic in his assessment of the mechanisms established to correct regional inequality. Chapters by the former secretary to the Cabinet and by members of the ‘key backroom group’ of advisers to the Chief Minister are supplemented by studies of policy relating to law, land issues, agriculture, and rural development. Bob McKillop’s hard-hitting chapter on ‘Agricultural Policy-Making’ underlines the difficulty of making significant policy changes where the inherited bureaucratic structure and value system persist.

WILLIAM TORDOFF University of Manchester