Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation-Building State Changes Its Mind

ISBN-13: 9780521336611 / Angielski / Miękka / 1989 / 324 str.

Michael Pusey

Opis

Throughout the world since the 1970s, state and public sector reform has been driven by a conservative agenda emphasising notions of 'streamlining' and 'rationalisation'; Australia has been no exception. Michael Pusey undertakes a detailed analysis of top bureaucrats in Canberra who have been responsible for this recasting of national policy. He concludes that economist rationalist view dominate each of the key ministries, and have altered the traditional balance between the economy, the state and society. The book also discusses the social significance of economic rationalisation and public sector reform from a theoretical perspective, contributing to contemporary understanding of modernisation, public morality and citizenship in the new global order.

Recenzje

'In 1994 Pusey decided to embark on an ambitious project to discover what Middle Australia really thought. Get out there into the suburbs, dig and listen, he told himself.' Asia Intelligence

Spis treści

Preface; Introduction: Canberra in the balance; Part I. Canberra: A State Apparatus Changes Its Mind: 1. Images of contemporary Australia; 2. Profiles of Canberra's political administrators; 3. The inner triangle; 4. The instrumentation of state power; Part II. State and Society: Reflections, Refractions, Reductions: 5. 'Rationalisation' and modernity: what has happened to the state's deliberative capacity?; 6. Integrity under stress: the Lucky Country enters the world economy; Appendices; Notes and references; Index.