Consensus and conflict among Australia's leaders∗

This paper reports and analyses survey data on the opinions of 353 top position‐holders in business, trade unions, federal and state politics, the Commonwealth Public Service, mass media, national voluntary associations, and major universities and research institutes during the latter half of 1975. Patterns of elite responses to 15 issue sets aggregating 46 separate opinion items are examined. The main focus is on the extent and configuration of elite conflict and consensus over economic policy, foreign and defence policy, industrial relations, social issues, and institutional structure. In general, substantial conflict between left‐of‐centre and right‐of‐centre elites in all major issue areas, save possibly that of social issues, is found. However, the extent of this conflict varies as between specific policies, over which it is relatively small, and the legitimacy or desirability of various group actions and major policy innovations, over which it is quite large. Whether conflict during 1975 was sufficiently great to threaten the fundamental unity of Australian elites is discussed.     

Reviews

A Liberal Nation: The Liberal Party and Australian Politics, Marian Simms, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger 1982, pp. 224. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Robert Manne (ed) The New Conservatism in Australia, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1982, pp. 290. $25.00, $9.99 (paper)

Kate White, John Cain and Victorian Labor 1917–1957, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 208. $24.95, $13.95 (paper)

Michael James (ed) The Constitutional Challenge; Essays on the Australian Constitution, constitutionalism and parliamentary practice, St Leonards, The Centre for Independent Studies, 1982, pp. 166. $7.95 (paper)

John R. Nethercote (ed) Parliament and Bureaucracy: Parliamentary Scrutiny of Administration: prospects and problems in the 1980s, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 363, $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Mary Dickenson, Democracy in Trade Unions, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1982, pp. 249. $29.95

Robert Murray and Kate White, The Ironworkers: A History of the Federated Ironworkers’ Association of Australia, Sydney, Hale and Iremonger, 1982, pp. 341. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Chris Fisher, Innovation and Australian Industrial Relations: Aspects of the Arbitral Experience 1945–1980, Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp. 226. $24.95, $12.95 (paper)

Helen Palmer's Outlook, edited by Doreen Bridges, with an introduction by Robin Gollan, Helen Palmer Committee, Sydney, 1982, pp. 220. $9.95

Ian Turner, Room For Manoeuvre, Writings on History, Politics, Ideas and Play, selected and edited by Leonie Sandercock and Stephen Murray‐Smith, Drummond, Richmond, Victoria, 1982, pp. 335. $15.95

Len Fox, Broad Left, Narrow Left, Sydney, Author and APCOL, 1982, pp. 233. $19.95, $12.95 (paper)

What Rough Beast? The State and Social Order in Australian History, Sydney Labour History Group, George Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1982, pp.282. $22.50, $9.95 (paper)

Stephen Holt, Manning Clark and Australian History 1915–1963, University of Queensland Press, 1982, pp.207. $14.95.

W.E.H. Stanner, White Man Got no Dreaming: Essays 1938–1973, Canberra, ANU Press, 1979, pp. 389. $25.00

Alan Powell, Far Country, a Short History of the Northern Territory, Melbourne University Press, 1982, pp. 301 $24.50, $14.95 (paper)

Robert M. Worcester & Martin Harrop (eds) Political Communications : The General Election Campaign of 1979, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 177. $49.95

John Western & Colin Hughes The Mass Media in Australia, 2nd Edn, University of Queensland Press, 1983, pp. 209. $19.95, $9.95 (paper)

Henry Mayer, Pauline Garde & Sandra Gibbons The Media : Questions and Answers ’Australian Surveys 1942–1980’, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1983 pp. 206. $29.95

Gavin Souter, Company of Heralds, Melbourne University Press, 1981, pp. 667. $24.50

Ronald Mendelsohn, Fair Go, Melbourne, Penguin, 1982, pp. 228. $7.95

Richard V. Cardew, John V. Langdale and David C. Rich (eds) Why Cities Change: Urban Development and Economic Change in Sydney, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 307. $24.95, $11.95 (paper)

Self, Peter, Planning the Urban Region, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 174. $35.95, $16.50 (paper)

Robert Birrell, Doug Hill and John Stanley (eds) Quarry Australia! Social and environmental perspectives on managing the nation's resources, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1982, pp. 366. $12.95 (paper)

Dean Jaensch, The Australian Party System, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1983, pp.235. $11.95 (paper)

Grant Harman and Don Smart (eds) Federal Intervention in Australian Education: Past, Present and Future, Melbourne, Georgian House, 1982, pp. 197. $12.50 (paper)

Desmond Ball (ed) Strategy & Defence : Australian Essays, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 402. $24.95, $12.95 (paper)

R.L. Mathews (ed) Public Policies in Two Federal Countries: Canada and Australia. Canberra, Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, Australian National University, 1982, pp. 298. np.

F.G. Castles (ed) The Impact of Parties : Politics and Policies in Democratic Capitalist States, London, Sage Publications, 1982, pp. 370. US $25.00

Greg Crough and Ted Wheelwright, Australia: A Client State, Ringwood, Penguin Books, 1982, pp. 255. $7.95 (paper)

Hilde T. Himmelweit, Patrick Humphreys, Marianne Jaeger, and Michael Katz, How Voters Decide, A longitudinal study of political attitudes and voting extending over fifteen years, Academic Press, 1981, pp. 276. £14.20. $38.45, $18.55 (paper)

Peter Limqueco and Bruce McFarlane (eds) Neo‐Marxist Theories of Development, London and Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp. 220. $18.25 (paper)

J.A.A. Stockwin, Japan: Divided Politics in a Growth Economy, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982, pp. 333. £15.50, £8.50 (paper)

John L.S. Girling, Thailand: Society and Politics, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, pp. 306. $41.95

Alan W. Ward, Land and Politics in New Caledonia, Canberra, Department of Political and Social Change Monograph, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, 1982, pp. 86. $6.00

John Lawrey, The Cross of Lorraine in the South Pacific—Australia and the Free French Movement 1940–1942, Canberra, Journal of Pacific History, 1982, pp. 142. $8.50

Peter McDonough, Power and Ideology in Brazil, Princeton University Press, 1981, pp. 326. US$33.00; US$10.70 (paper)

Fouad Ajami, The Arab Predicament: Arab Political Thought and Practice Since 1967, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 220. £12.50

Alexander S. Cudsi and Ali E. Hillal Dessouki (eds) Islam and Power, London, Croom Helm, 1981, pp. 204. $19.95

Steven L. Spiegel (ed) The Middle East and the Western Alliance London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 252. $39.95

K.P. Misra(ed), Afghanistan in Crisis, London, Croom Helm, 1981, pp. 150. $20.25

John Ardagh, France in the 1980s: The Definitive Book, Harmondsworth, Penguin, pp. 672. $10.95

Jan F. Triska and Charles Gati (eds) Blue‐Collar Workers in Eastern Europe, London, Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp.302. $38.50, $18.95 (paper)

Francis A. Beer, Peace Against War, San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Company, 1981, pp. 447.

Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 272. £15

Seweryn Bialer and Thane Gustafson (eds) Russia at the Crossroads: The 26th congress of the CPSU, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 223. $49.95

Hannes Adomeit, Soviet Risk‐Taking and Crisis Behaviour, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 377. $75.00

Frank Field, Poverty and Politics: The Inside Story of the Child Poverty Action Group's Campaigns in the 1970s, London, Heinemann, 1982, (paper)

Dennis Kavanagh (ed) The Politics of the Labour Party, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 228. $13.95 (paper)

Michael Meacher, Socialism with a Human Face, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1982, pp. 295. $42.50

Stanley Hoffman and Paschalis Kitromilides (eds) Culture and Society in Contemporary Europe: A Casebook Harvard, Centre for European Studies, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp.238. $49.95, $22.50 (paper)

Peter Lange and Maurizio Vanicelli (eds) The Communist Parties of Italy, France and Spain—Postwar Change and Continuity: A Casebook, Centre for European Studies, Harvard, George Allen and Unwin, London, 1981, pp. 385. $62.50, $27.50 (paper)

Janice Jiggins, Caste and Family in the Politics of the Sinhalese 1947–1976, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1979, pp. 189. £15.50

Michael Roberts, Caste Conflict and Elite Formation—the Rise of a Karava Elite in Sri Lanka, 1500–1931, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 382. £30.00 Donald L. Horowitz, Coup Theories and Officers’ Motives—Sri Lanka in Comparative Perspective, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1980, pp. 238. US$25.00, US$11.75 (paper)

Stewart Clegg, Geoff Dow and Paul Boreham (eds) The State, Class and the Recession, London and Canberra, Croom Helm, 1983, pp.331. $29.25

Mike Muller, The Health of Nations: A North‐South Investigation, London, Faber and Faber, 1982, pp.255. $10.95

Richard L. Merritt and Bruce M. Russett (eds) From National Development to Global Community: Essays in Honor of Karl W. Deutsch, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp.480. $50, $23.95 (paper)

Robert G. Burgess (ed) Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Manual, Sydney, George Allen & Unwin, 1982, pp. 286. $68, $35 (paper)

Jean Bethke Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought, Princeton University Press, 1981.

Jean Bethke Elshtain (ed) The Family in Political Thought, Brighton, Harvester Press, 1982.

Keith Graham (ed) Contemporary Political Philosophy: Radical Studies, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp.159. £12.50, £4.50 (paper)

Robert E. Goodin, Political Theory and Public Policy, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1982, pp.249. US$27.50

Gerald F. Gaus, The Modem Liberal Theory of Man, London, Croom Helm, 1983, pp.312. $29.25

R.D. (Bob) Jessop, The Capitalist State: Marxist Theories and Methods, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1982, pp. 296. £5.95 (paper)

John Passmore, The Limits of Government (1981 Boyer Lectures), Sydney, ABC, 1982, pp. 62. $2.95

Russell Jacoby, Dialectic of Defeat: Contours of Western Marxism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, pp. 202. £15

Howard Margolis, Selfishness, Altruism & Rationality, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 194. £18

Michael Oakeshott, On History and Other Essays, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp.198 £12.

David Miller and Larry Siedentop (eds) The Nature of Political Theory, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1983, pp.261 $43.75

Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism, London, Merlin Press, 1979, pp. 253. (paper)

Helen Roberts (ed) Doing Feminist Research, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1981. £4.95 (paper) Margrit Eichler, The Double Standard, London, Croom Helm, 1980. $9.95 (paper)

Kaye Hargreaves, Women at Work, Ringwood, Victoria, Penguin, 1982, pp. 402. $6.95