Applying Habermas to Australian political culture

This article seeks to explore some problems in Jurgen Habermas's account of political norms and values in Western society. Using examples from Australian political discourse, it is argued that Habermas has neglected to analyse some of the ways in which political consensus can be generated in Western society. In particular, he has failed to acknowledge adequately the role played by liberal norms and values in attempts to reconcile conflicts between the individual and general interest While Habermas has made important contributions to social theory, such deficiencies limit his usefulness for Australian political scientists who wish to analyse some crucial aspects of Australian political culture.     

The impact of feminist scholarship on Australian political science

The discipline of political science has remained male dominated in most parts of the world. Women have organised within political science associations both to raise the status of women in the profession and to try to transform the discipline. This article is a personal account of the 25‐year history of the Women's Caucus of the Australasian Political Studies Association and its successes and failures. While the status of women in the profession has improved and the journal has become more gender inclusive, the impact of feminist scholarship on political science curriculum remains patchy. Space has been made for gender scholarship and a chapter added to textbooks and disciplinary histories, but the approach is additive rather than transformative. One contributing factor may be increased fragmentation of the discipline.     

Conceptions of Australian political thought: A methodological critique

This paper takes issue with a number of standard interpretations of Australian political thought and the methods of argument by which they have been reached. It confronts the substantive claims (a) that Australia has produced no significant indigenous political thought, ideology, or ideological conflict, and (b) that which passes for political thought is generally derivative, lacking in originality and inferior. It is argued that such claims are based upon unduly narrow conceptions of political thought and misplaced categories of evaluation. Finally, the paper demonstrates that by expanding our conceptions of political thought beyond that of ‘epic’ or universalist political philosophy, and applying methods of evaluation appropriate to the subject matter, more sensible conclusions can be drawn about the existence and quality of Australian political thought, as well as its place in political life.     

Australian political studies and the production of disciplinary innocence

ABSTRACT

While Australian political studies often appears to have neglected engagements with Indigenous peoples and politics, we argue this is not a simple question of omission. In fact, the discipline is deeply implicated in imperial knowledge production and the authorisation of racialised colonial governance. As non-Indigenous scholars working within Australian political studies, in this paper we reflect on our own discipline in light of several decades of critical scholarship, identifying the production of disciplinary innocence through a theoretical and institutional analysis of Australian political studies knowledge practices. We explore this production via canonical knowledges, institutional processes that contain Indigenous people and knowledge to subjects of policy, and the operation of disciplinary divisions which neutralise scholarship on policy and political institutions.     

Factions and tendencies in the Australian political party system

This paper uses the 1987 Australian Election Study to examine the attitudinal, social and political characteristics of the political factions and tendencies which exist within the Labor, Liberal, National and Australian Democrat parties. We show that attitudinal groups are identifiable in all four parties, the greatest diversity existing within the Democrats and the least diversity within the Nationals. Substantial differences exist between groups within each party in social background and political characteristics. A multivariate analysis of factional and tendency electoral support shows that incumbency and control of nominations is important among ALP factions, while electorate involvement and party membership are important within Liberal and National tendencies.     

The Australian mining tax and the political power of business

This article provides a detailed analysis of the Australian Labor government's mining tax, building on recent debates that critique Lindblom's Politics and markets. We argued that the case illustrates the power of big business, in particular the importance of the relative flexibility of large companies, especially in the form of ‘investment strikes’, although such a strategy is more constrained in the resource sector. We also explore two other key factors. First, we analyse Lindblom's argument that government has resources which big business needs, and suggest that this argument depends on governments being competent in negotiations with large companies. We find that the claim did not apply to the case of the mining tax. Second, we analyse his view that business power owes a great deal to the manipulation of citizens' ‘volitions’. We find some evidence to support this claim, but again suggest that the failure of the government to effectively make the case for a mining tax helped business.

本文就最近有关林德·布罗姆《政治与市场》一书的辩论,对澳大利亚工党政府的矿业税做了详尽的分析。笔者指出,矿业税说明了大企业的力量,尤其是大公司的相对灵活性,特别是他们的“投资罢工”,尽管在资源部门这种策略受到了扼制。笔者还探讨了另外两个关键因素。第一个是林德·布罗姆观点,即政府有大企业所需的资源。此论的根据是政府有能力与大公司讨价还价。笔者认为,这种说法并不适用于矿业税。第二个是,林德·布罗姆认为企业力量很大程度要受公民“意志”的左右。此说有一定根据,但政府未能搞定矿业税则帮了企业。     

The Australian League of Rights and the process of political conversion

An empirical study of Australian League of Rights' supporters demonstrates their intensely held ideological convictions. Such devotees commonly seek to convert others to their belief system which they regard as “sacrosanct” while other modes of thought are ill‐informed and harmful. Their proselytisation technique attempts to make the “target” doubt previously unquestioned notions, thereby creating personal anguish and conflict.

Most researchers believe strain or deprivation to be necessary factors in the conversion process although such strain need not be perceived by others. Empirical difficulties are encountered using a seven‐step model to view conversion. The model has certain serious limitations, owing to the alien position of the researcher and the inevitable post‐hoc rationalisation of respondents. Nevertheless it has some utility in the field situation and is suggested as being broadly applicable as an heuristic tool.     

Designing candidate selection methods: Exploring diversity in Australian political parties

The processes political parties use to select their candidates for public office constitute a crucial element of political recruitment in representative democracies and provide important insights into how power is distributed within party organisations. In this article, we develop a typology for understanding the diversity of preselection mechanisms in Australia's major parties that is based on degrees of influence between the central and local components of the party organisation. The typology in turn reflects preselection rules as public expressions of intra-party power sharing arrangements. We also identify the institutional, strategic and normative factors (including electoral systems, the accommodation of intra-party groups, candidate quality, efficiency and social norms) that influence the choices parties have to make when selecting and implementing a particular system.

政党用以选举候选人出任公职的过程构成了代议制民主国家政治遴选的一个关键因素,并提供了理解政党组织内权力分配的一个重要角度。本文根据中央和地方党组织之间影响的不同程度,提出了一种分类法以理解澳大利亚主要政党预选机制的多样性。这种分类法本身反映了作为表达政党内权力分享安排的预选规则。我们还找到了体制、战略以及规范性因素（包括选举制度、党内不同群体的相互适应、候选人品质、效率、社会规范等等）,这些因素会影响政党选择和实施某种制度时的决策。