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Chapter 6 - Politics, Power and Institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Michael Pusey
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
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Summary

While many decry the role that politicians play, only the politicians can make changes to the way the country conducts its business. Change can not come from the bureaucracy no matter how well motivated or gifted because the bureaucracy has no authority to rank priorities or make decisions. Nor can change come from the media and the opinions of columnists, no matter how important. In the end politicians have to have the foresight to see the need for change and the courage and strength to carry it through.

Paul Keating, Prime Minister 1991–96

In this chapter we shall first look squarely at middle Australia's perceptions and attitude towards big business, and government regulation of the corporate sector. We want to know, as far as we can, how middle Australia understands economic reform. How do they make sense of it? Do they see it as wind and rain, as a quasi-natural thing that just happens without visible agency? Or do they see it as something that is done politically, either to them, or for them and with them? How does the experience of economic reform flow through into attitudes, convictions and even prejudices that people hold about the politics of reform, the changing structure of the society and the distribution of its social and economic costs and benefits? Who do middle Australians perceive to be the winners and losers from economic reform?

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Chapter
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The Experience of Middle Australia
The Dark Side of Economic Reform
, pp. 138 - 167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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