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The imposition of market-oriented economic reforms throughout Africa in the 1990s has sparked renewed debate over the desirability of state-sponsored land titling programs. Proponents argue that land titling is an essential foundation for economic growth. Opponents contend that titling programs are unnecessary and premature at best, or detrimental at worst. This paper addresses these concerns through an examination of Cameroon's 1974 Lands Ordinance. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, we find that the 1974 Lands Ordinance has not introduced Western-style private property rights in Cameroon's agrarian sector. Nevertheless, the ordinance is not irrelevant to rural farmers. Rural farmers have used the ordinance to obtain concrete boundary markers on their land, enhancing their tenure security. In addition, administrators have used the ordinance to register underdeveloped land, reducing the contradictions between state law and customary law. These findings suggest that policy-makers could fruitfully redesign their land tenure policies to render them more attractive to rural farmers, and thereby give the state a more constructive role in enhancing tenure security, and in promoting economic growth.

The goal of empowering minorities through redistricting has been attacked from all sides. The Supreme Court recently called the North Carolina redistricting plan "political apartheid" (Shaw v. Reno 1993) while critics on the left reject the approach because it merely provides descriptive rather than substantive representation (Guinier 1991a, 1134-53). This article offers a new perspective from which to assess the viability of this approach to black empowerment: the supply side of redistricting. Using a unique data set from the 1972, 1982, and 1992 congressional elections in black districts, we examine how individual politicians respond to the changing electoral context imposed by new district lines and how, in turn, their decisions shape the electoral choices and outcomes in a given district. We argue that individual politicians acting in their own self-interest may tip the balance of electoral power to black and white moderates in the district. We find that this outcome prevails in approximately half of ...

How do politicians try to shape their news coverage? Sellers examines strategic communication campaigns in the U.S. Congress. He argues that these campaigns create cycles of spin: leaders create messages, rank-and-file legislators decide whether to promote those messages, journalists decide whether to cover the messages, and any coverage feeds back to influence the policy process. These four stages are closely related; decisions at one stage influence those at another. Sellers uses diverse evidence, from participant observation and press secretary interviews, to computerized content analysis and vector auto regression. The result is a comprehensive and unprecedented examination of politicians' promotional campaigns and journalists' coverage of those campaigns. Countering numerous critics of spin, Sellers offers the provocative argument that the promotional messages have their origins in the actual policy preferences of members of Congress. The campaigns to promote these messages thus can help the public learn about policy debates in Congress.

Here we determine the complete genomic sequence of the Gram negative, γ-Proteobacterium Vibrio cholerae El Tor N16961 to be 4,033,460 base pairs (bp). The genome consists of two circular chromosomes of 2,961,146 bp and 1,072,314 bp that together encode 3,885 open reading frames. The vast majority of recognizable genes for essential cell functions (such as DNA replication, transcription, translation and cell-wall biosynthesis) and pathogenicity (for example, toxins, surface antigens and adhesins) are located on the large chromosome. In contrast, the small chromosome contains a larger fraction (59%) of hypothetical genes compared with the large chromosome (42%), and also contains many more genes that appear to have origins other than the γ-Proteobacteria. The small chromosome also carries a gene capture system (the integron island) and host ‘addiction’ genes that are typically found on plasmids; thus, the small chromosome may have originally been a megaplasmid that was captured by an ancestral Vibrio species. The V. cholerae genomic sequence provides a starting point for understanding how a free-living, environmental organism emerged to become a significant human bacterial pathogen. Supplementary information The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/35020000) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.