Mobile sovereignty: The case of ‘boat people’ in Australia

State sovereignty, in terms of the organisation and expression of political authority by nation states, is traditionally interpreted as a political container that is being weakened by increasing human and non-human mobilities. However recent research indicates that states are themselves becoming more mobile as executive bodies move and sovereign spaces are tactically reduced and expanded to intercept and control global mobilities. While challenging dichotomous notions of mobility and sovereignty, such research frames the movements of governments, territory and sovereign agents as the tactics of already established states. This paper builds on extant research by drawing on both a mobile ontology and Giorgio Agamben's theory of sovereignty to examine how mobilities constitute modern state sovereignty. To do so I examine Australian sovereignty and the related material and symbolic exclusion of asylum seekers arriving by boat. My analysis finds that mobilities, in terms of material movements and their representation, are essential to the construction of Australian sovereignty and the position of maritime asylum seekers as its outsider and limit identity. Through their mobile interception and management, and their representation as mobile ‘others’, maritime asylum seekers are used to create sovereign borders between specific types of movement; between ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ (im)mobilities. I argue that this form of state sovereignty is disarticulated from space and follows populations who construct territories as being ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ of the Australian state as they move.     

Leadership and voting: the connection at the state level

While it is now well established that Australian party leaders at the national level influence political choice in federal elections, little systematic study has been undertaken of the equivalent role that State Premiers and Opposition Leaders might play. In the 2001 Australian Election Study (n=2010), questions were asked of a national probability sample of voters about respondent feelings towards their State Premier and State Opposition Leader, in addition to equivalent questions about Prime Minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley and other major political figures in federal politics. The data generated by this survey thus provide an opportunity to investigate the impact that contemporary State political leaders have on electoral choice. The analysis produces mixed results, but the findings show that State leaders generally do have an impact on voting behaviour in State elections, although in some cases this influence is eliminated when account is taken of voter attitudes towards the federal leaders. The analysis also affords an opportunity to test the extent of crossover between State and federal politics, in terms of how much State leaders influence federal voting and vice versa. While the results are somewhat uneven, they do indicate that some State leaders influence federal voting and that the federal leaders do influence voting in some States.     

Deporting the Irish Envoys: Domestic and National Security in 1920s Australia

The 1923 deportation of two Irish republican envoys was a signal moment in the construction of Australian immigration policy, remembered more in legal than political history. The arrival of the Irish envoys, anti-treaty, anti-Free State and anti-British, provoked anxieties about imperial loyalty and domestic harmony. This article contextualises the role of the envoys as a performance of Irish republican politics in the dying stages of the Irish Civil War before analysing the responses to them by Australian governments determined to curb their activities. Immigration policy and administration were constructed in this episode as an element of national security, one that implied a consideration for relations between states of a changing empire as well as the need for domestic harmony within Australian borders.     

Professionalism and Australia's Security Intellectuals: Knowledge,Power, Responsibility

This article examines critically the systemic 'professionalism' which has overtaken Australia's defence and security community in the 1990s. It focuses on the unhealthy convergence of academic security studies at the Australian National University with an overriding foreign policy priority of the Australian Government: the formation of a new regional identity based on themes of 'engagement' and 'enmeshment' with Asia. It argues that the main consequence of this 'professionalist' trend is a mode of inquiry that expunges politics, ethics and responsibility from academic discourse on security. The article also addresses briefly an emerging postmodern politics of dissidence in the disciplines of security studies and political geography which has transformed our understanding of the role and social responsibility of security intellectuals.     

Sir Otto Niemeyer,the bankrupt state and the federal system

One of the main myths about Australian political and economic history relates to the intervention in economic policy making in the 1930s by the Bank of England through the mission of Sir Otto Niemeyer. This article argues that Niemeyer's advice was not heeded. Rather, parallels between what he demanded and the Premiers’ Plan were largely confined to the level of rhetoric as part of a strategy to regain access to the London capital market. State expenditures were reduced gradually according to local political calculations and fiscal priorities, and not in step with the timetable set by the Bank of England. Far from weakening and dividing the Australian state, the federal separation of powers led to the gradual introduction of fiscal austerity, as state governments had little option but to maintain their role in complementing capital accumulation and facilitating social legitimation.     

Recently Observed Polarising Tendencies and Australian Cities

Recent research and writing about social and spatial polarisation in Australian cities is reviewed in a five-part study. The first part outlines the international context in which Australian urban restructuring and polarisation is occurring. The second considers the consequences of structural adjustment in Australia in terms of changes to the distribution of national income and social costs. There is an apparent incongruity of sharper spatial disparities developing during a decade (1982—94) when the living standards of the poor were maintained at 1982 levels by the social security system under federal Labor governments.Part three surveys several recent that explicitly set out to measure shifts in urban spatial inequality, and thereby help to clarify aspects of the debate about social and spatial polarisation under Australian conditions. Part four sets out to show how both the construction of this debate, and the response of governments to urban restructuring in Australia, are implicitly grounded in three competing theoretical frameworks: ‘post-marxist’ political economy; neoliberalism; discourses of identity and difference. Finally, practical and ethical issues are raised that stem from the triumph of neoliberal ideology over alternative visions of the ‘companionable state’.     

Paul Keating is the prime minister,but who delivers the mail? A study of political knowledge amongst young people

Very little research in Australia has attempted to evaluate the level of political knowledge of young people. Explanations as to why young people have a low interest in, and little knowledge of, politics have been even rarer. Assessing the political knowledge of Australian young people provides a step toward understanding their responses to the political system.

The present study examines the political knowledge of final year school students and makes comparisons to research into political knowledge conducted previously in Britain. The results are examined within two terms of reference: firstly, factors that include interest in politics, media usage and interest in participating in politics; and secondly, demographic factors such as gender, non‐English speaking background/ English speaking background (NESB/ESB), and parents’ occupation. All, except parents’ occupation, were found to influence young people's level of political knowledge. An interaction was found between interest in politics and gender as determinants of political knowledge.     

‘Ain’t I a feminist?’: the politics of gender violence,anti-violence,and education in Oakland,CA

This article focuses on the ways gender violence politics become reduced to liberal narratives of victimization in contemporary U.S. deployment of feminist identity politics, within academic and activist discourses. Such victimization narratives, I argue, exploit suffering and reproduce social stratification between a growing middle class in the academy and poor black people outside of it. This article draws from moments in California’s Bay area when questions of feminism, gender violence, and anti-violence in schools arose. In each case, left feminists had an opportunity to reshape these questions towards new political paradigms and new academic discourses. Instead, amidst the ‘safety’ of left discourse and practice, each moment confronted contradictory silences that called into question such ‘safety’ and made generative political movement impossible. I analyze the dynamics of this silencing as constitutive of the co-optation of feminist identity politics within a capitalist university that reproduces an oppressive race and class order. We face a problem of language to adequately explain and disrupt the incapacity for collective social change that victimhood, identity politics, and reformism have produced. Each instance I present function as moments of history making from which we may reflect and strategize forward movement against capitalist oppression and racial dehumanization.     

A Problematic Discipline: The Identity of Australian Political Studies

Political science as a distinct discipline only emerged in the Australian academy after the Second World War. By the end of the 1950s it was attracting thousands of undergraduates. Into the 1990s and beyond, political science has remained a relatively 'successful' discipline. However, it would be difficult to argue that the identity of Australian political science has been forged by disputes over the 'scientific' core of the discipline. Some Australian political scientists have claimed that this deficit is a fundamental weakness, denying the discipline both a set of common professional values and a basis for the integration of research. By contrast, this paper will argue that the issue of identity is better considered from a historically sensitive perspective rather than purely in terms of profession and methodology.     

Two forms of Catholicism in twenty-first-century Italian public debate: an analysis of positions on same-sex marriage and Muslim dress codes

There is a peculiar relationship between religion and the political system in twenty-first-century Italy. In particular, the collapse of the Democrazia Cristiana party has favored the rise of new political entrepreneurs eager to exploit religion as a legitimacy factor, while the Catholic Church has attempted to influence politics without the mediation of any specific political party. New debates involving religious values have therefore developed. This article analyzes the positions taken and the frames proposed by Italy’s Catholic political actors in relation to two particularly telling issues, that of same-sex marriage and that of the Muslim dress codes. Its most striking finding is the presence in the Italian political system of two distinct forms of Catholicism in politics. One, promoted by the Catholic Church and followed by most centrist Catholics, is quite tolerant in terms of social and religious pluralism and supportive of human rights and social justice, but it emphasizes the ‘traditional’ heterosexual family as the cornerstone of society. The other, ‘civilizational’ form, promoted by the Lega Nord and some other center-right representatives and intellectuals, is based on an idea of Italian citizenship articulated in religious, cultural, and ethnic terms, and thus excluding those who are not members of this community. Here Christian identity is not defined by the Church’s teachings, but rather represents a marker of Western civilization in opposition to Muslim civilization.     

The battle for the family: Family policy in Australian electoral politics in the 1980s

This paper is a preliminary look at the recent emergence of the family as a major theme of Australian electoral politics. It shows that while both the Liberal and Labor Parties are attempting to make political capital out of the family, there are significant differences in their approach. While the Labor Party has been more inclined to accept diversity in the form of the family and the need to support primary carers, the Coalition has given priority to ‘strengthening the traditional family’ and its role as an alternative to welfare state provision. The paper deconstructs campaign material from recent federal and State elections in terms of message and intended audience. It notes the dangers of political discourse based on manipulation of highly charged symbols such as the family, the flag and the nation.

The second half of the paper analyses some of the implications of using the family as a focus for social policy. It examines the contradictions between social policy based on the treatment of the family as an undifferentiated unit and policy which recognises the importance of interfamily and intrafamily inequalities. It looks at issues raised by family policy as a focus for redistribution and provision of services on the one hand, and as a means of reducing public expenditure and reinforcing dependence on male family heads on the other. The stress on the importance of the family is rarely accompanied by a comparable dedication to assessing the role of unpaid caring work in the economy or to achieving equal opportunity for workers with family responsibilities.     

From Enmity to Rivalry? Notes on National Identity Politics in Competition States

Abstract

This paper examines what it means to study national identity politics in an age during which state-to-state relations are being conceptualised increasingly in terms of economic rivalry and less in terms of political enmity. It is suggested that this transformation has not been sufficiently taken into account in the study of national identity politics that continues to operate on the basis of the friend-enemy distinction. It is also suggested that the ‘old school of national identity politics’ with its emphasis on territorial exclusion and geopolitical images of threat and enmity has done highly important work in deconstructing security discourses and it is noted how they are linked to a specific, realist understanding of the world. That is, they have disclosed how what Alexander Wendt calls the ‘Hobbesian culture of anarchy’ has motivated national identity politics. Further using Wendt's characterisation of the three cultures of anarchy, the paper suggests that in the practices of contemporary national identity politics the logic of economic competitiveness and the logic of political enmity continue to co-exist but that ‘state survival’ is being increasingly understood as a matter of economic competitiveness and decreasingly as that of military power. On this basis it is argued that the era of competition states begs an analysis of the conflictual and often contradictory articulations of the Self's relation with the Other. It is proposed that a fruitful road of enquiry would open up if national identity politics was examined within the framework of political struggles whereby the national survival and Self/Other relations are played out against the background of the global marketplace paradigm which resonates more with the Lockean than the Hobbesian culture of anarchy.     

The Rhetorical Framing of Policy Intervention

When prime ministers speak, the nation usually listens. In the Australian federation, prime ministers have consistently used the power of their political pulpit to launch policy interventions into areas of traditional State responsibility. This article suggests that there is an emerging rhetorical pattern to the way these policy interventions are presented. Prime ministers of both major parties have used rhetoric to portray the Commonwealth as acting on behalf of the legitimate interests of constituents who have been ignored by State governments. Occurring in close proximity to federal elections, policy interventions are shown to be weapons which favour incumbent prime ministers in their battles with State governments and federal oppositions alike.     

The political significance of the coinage of the Irish Free State

This article examines the political context of the new Irish coinage that was introduced in 1928. It attempts to illustrate how the coins of the Irish Free State were products of the political circumstances of their time. The article also analyses the political negotiations concerning the future of the large quantity of British coins that remained in circulation in the Irish Free State. The conclusion will argue that the Irish coins issued in 1928 were of considerable political importance as symbols of national identity visible to the general public on a daily basis. Symbols of this nature were of particular significance to the Irish Free State because its status as a sovereign state was open to dispute in the 1920s and 1930s. The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 made it clear that the Irish Free State was a Dominion of the British Empire. This article will argue that the political background to the introduction of the new Irish coins reflects wider controversies that dominated Irish politics and external relations in the years between the two world wars.     

The Fiscal-Electoral Nexus in Australia, 1976-94

This article re-evaluates existing political business cycle theory in the specific context of the political economy of Australian fiscal policy since the mid-1970s. Whereas 'traditional' political business cycle models, formulated within a Keynesian framework, assume a high level of state autonomy over fiscal policy, this article argues that an environment of fiscal restraint has been imposed on Australian federal governments over the study period. Given the historical dynamics of Australian economic policy which inform this study, a hypothesis is developed which reflects the policy optimisation dilemma which has confronted Australian federal governments when formulating fiscal priorities in a pre-election context. On one hand, there are pre-poll demands for expansionary fiscal settings from the electorate; on the other, there are demands from financial markets and domestic neoliberal interests for fiscal restraint. Reflecting the fact that identifiable costs are associated with implementing expansionary fiscal policy settings, it is hypothesised that such an approach will be adopted only in times of greatest political need, when an incumbent government is facing a popularity deficit in a pre-election context. While the study confirms that the fiscal-electoral effect is relatively weak, electoral demands do still influence the fiscal priorities of Australian federal governments. This is particularly so with the case of personal taxation relief, a policy approach that appears to be more acceptable to financial markets, key neoliberal interests and some segments of the electorate.     

Politics in the irish free state: the legacy of a conservative revolution

This article is based on the premise that the social and political foundations of the geopolitical entity known as the Irish Free State was of a conservative nature, unique in Western Europe. Of course, conservative forces also featured prominently in the early twentieth-century in other European countries. However, they were counterbalanced by forces of opposition sufficiently powerful to generate a social and political balance that was practically nonexistent within the Irish Free State. When exploring the root cause of Ireland's conservative politics, I identify an ideological connection between the lack of radical forces in the Irish Free State and the revolution through which it was established. In other words, the 1916–23 Irish Revolution indisputably laid the foundations of the ideas that were to become the dominant ideology in southern Ireland during the 1920s and 1930s.     

Court politics in a federal polity

This article uses a case study from Queensland to demonstrate the court politics approach's potential to reinvigorate executive studies. Court politics focuses on webs of interdependence within the core executive. It examines the beliefs and practices of elite actors and their fluid and contingent relationships. This article examines the patterns of executive politics that prevailed under Premier Anna Bligh. It seeks to answer three key questions. First, why is court politics a useful approach to studying the Australian core executive? Second, what is the nature and extent of court politics in Australian state governments? Finally, recognising that local traditions shape the beliefs and practices of political elites, how does the court politics approach need to be modified for application in Australia?     

旅游视域下的认同研究——基于文献综述的视角

从当前国内外主要旅游研究期刊中析出关于"认同"研究的文献,通过统计整理,归纳分析出旅游视域下认同研究的视角、内容、方法,反映旅游视域下认同的研究进展和学术动态,为后续研究提供学术线索。研究发现:旅游文献中关于认同的研究热度与其他学科研究具有一致性;旅游文献中关于认同的研究已形成了以心理社会认同理论为基础,文化认同为核心,沿着政治认同、族群(民族)认同、地方(场所)认同、自我认同和社会认同五大脉络延伸的研究思路和框架;通过国内外研究的比较,表明国内关于认同的研究与国外研究相比存在一定的差距。文章最后探讨了认同研究在旅游研究中的学术地位和国内关于认同研究的主要方向。     

The changing structural base of Australian politics since 1946

There has been a continuing debate in Australia about the declining political importance of traditional social cleavages, such as class and religion, since the end of the Second World War. While some scholars have argued that class has declined in political importance, others have presented contrary evidence. In this paper, we eliminate some substantive and methodological problems that have clouded this debate and use multivariate analysis to re‐assess the evidence for the decline of traditional cleavages across class and religious boundaries in Australia. Our results show that there was no decline in class voting in Australia until after the middle of the 1960s. The decline since then has been less steep than others have suggested. On the other hand, the traditional cleavage between Catholics and Protestants weakened significantly during the same period, as did Labor's disadvantage among women. Strong cohort effects may have exaggerated the apparent decline in class voting, which, while weaker in the 1980s than it was in the 1940s and 1960s, remains the strongest structural cleavage in Australian politics.     

The Symbolic Politics of Belonging and Community in Peri‐urban Environmental Disputes: the Traveston Crossing Dam in Queensland,Australia

This paper examines a recent dispute generated by the Queensland State Government proposal to build the Traveston Crossing Dam on the Mary River in southeast Queensland, Australia. It is particularly concerned with the ways in which interrelated issues of belonging, community identity, and social diversity were negotiated during the anti‐dam campaign. As an unusual alliance of farmers, environmentalists, urban retirees, some Aboriginal people and others, it takes a view of the anti‐Traveston Crossing Dam campaign as a fluid network of people and approaches the notion of community identity as the symbolic construction of similarity. Locally specific, the paper describes pertinent aspects of community politics in the context of rural socioeconomic change, and the mobilisation of heritage. With regard to local senses of belonging, it also discusses the involvement of Aboriginal people during the campaign. More broadly then, this paper attempts to make an ethnographic contribution to the study of environmental disputes and the politics of alliance in peri‐urban areas of settler‐descendant societies such as Australia.