Economic Rationalism in Canberra
A Nation-Building State Changes its Mind

Michael Pusey discusses the way that Australian policies have transformed since the 1970's.

Michael Pusey (Author)

9780521336611, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 1 December 1989

324 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.41 kg

'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

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC], Biography: historical, political & military [BGH]