APSA50: The jubilee conference of the Australasian Political Science Association

Timetable: Session 4
Thursday 3 October: 9.00-10.30am

Session 1    Session 2    Session 3    Session 5    Session 6    Session 7    Session 8    Session 9    Session 10
Wednesday    Thursday    Friday

Electoral reform
Chair: Elaine Thompson

Christopher Pyne (Liberal MHR, Sturt)

Senator Andrew Bartlett (Australian Democrats, Queensland)

Professor David Farrell (Manchester University)

Psychological politics
Chair: Jim Walter
This is intended to be a panel discussion, looking both at questions relating to the history and take up of political psychology in Australian political science, and at current and future prospects. Anthony Moran, La Trobe University, discussant. The speakers will be giving short presentations at follows:

Judith Brett, La Trobe University
Revising the agenda for the study of Australian political culture: The Australian state in every day life

John Cash, University of Melbourne
Political passions today

James Walter, Monash University
Reflections on the ‘Melbourne School’

Deliberative democracy
Chair: Craig Browne

Carolyn Hendriks, Social and Political Theory, RSSS, ANU
Exploring the murky waters of civil society in deliberative democracy
Civil society is one of those murky terms that floats around with multiple meanings, all with different political connotations. The field of deliberative democracy is as guilty as any of using the term with limited critical discussion of what it includes, and what its normative role encompasses. This paper takes on this exploration and in doing so reveals a number of tensions within the theory and practice of deliberative democracy. Amongst the growing literature on deliberative democracy there are two emerging streams of thought and both have something different to say on the role of civil society. There are those micro-theorists who concentrate on defining the actual conditions of deliberation with some limited discussion on who should be involved (Elster 1986; Gutmann and Thomson 1996). This perspective suggests that citizens can engage in deliberative practice provided they are communicative, reflective and open to the ideas of others. Macro-theorists in contrast are more concerned with defining how deliberative politics might come about (Dryzek 1990; 2000; Habermas 1996). Their focus is on discussing the interrelationships between state and legal institutions and civil society. Macro theories of deliberative democracy call on civil society to engage in the contestation of discourses including oppositional public spheres. These two ideas on the role civil society should play in a deliberative democracy seem to be in conflict - one requires participants to engage in collaborative practices with the state and the other advocates for political activity outside and against the state. Apart from this being a theoretical inconsistency, this phenomena also has practical ramifications. The recent experiences of how some interest organisations choose to react strategically to innovative public participation processes such as citizen juries and deliberative polls demonstrate that the ideals of structured deliberative forums are often in conflict with the unstructured nature of deliberation in civil society and the public sphere.

Nic Southwood, Social and Political Theory, RSSS, ANU
Resolving deliberative democracy's proceduralist ambiguities
In this paper, I show that, whilst necessarily proceduralist, the ideal of deliberative democracy may be interpreted in four different ways, depending upon what answers one gives to two logically independent questions that are inescapable for any version of proceduralism. After mounting a general argument for only one of these interpretations of proceduralism being remotely desirable, and then detailing two sets of challenges to which any version of this interpretation must provide answers, I show that a kind of deliberative democracy that I call 'deliberative republicanism' looks relatively promising with respect to answering these two sets of challenges.

Nick Turnbull, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales
A theoretical analysis of the argumentative turn in policy theory, in light of the philosophical separation of logic and rhetoric
Argumentation and rhetoric have been identified as important in the theoretical policy literature. Authors such as Majone, Fischer and Dryzek have critiqued the rationalist model of policy making, pointing out the necessity for policy makers to utilise argumentation in formulating policy problems and articulating their solutions. Policy decisions are not made via a scientific determination of necessary truth, but through a contestable process in which the participants argue in favour of different positions. This also raises the importance of political rhetoric in the policy process. However, difficulties persist in understanding how argumentation and political rhetoric can be incorporated into political science. This stems from the Aristotelian division between logic and rhetoric which presents rhetoric as a weakness of reason. Consequently, rhetoric is viewed as being a justification after a decision has already been made, or as manipulative discourse designed to obscure the truth. Rhetoric remains secondary to logical demonstration, and so the study of policy argumentation and political rhetoric is incommensurable with the scientific analysis of politics. The study of policy arguments is thus cast as inferior to the rationalist model of policy analysis on more than sociological grounds, as it is founded on a fundamental philosophical construction. The theoretical literature on policy argumentation is discussed in light of this philosophical understanding. This division is played out in various ways in the policy theory literature, having consequences for the theoretical conceptualisation of policy and the implied separation of policy and politics. Michel Meyer's philosophy is the basis for this critique. Meyer's alternative approach is not articulated, but his argument that the degradation of rhetoric stems from the suppression of questioning in favour of propositional reasoning is applied to policy theory.

John Parkinson, Social & Political Theory, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University
Plus ça change: The use of deliberation in the UK's National Health Service
Britain's National Health Service is apparently in the midst of a dramatic transformation from centralised bureaucracy to "patient-centred" network. The rationale is partly a familiar one given the New Public Management reforms of the last two decades: efficiency, control of bureaucracy, and accountability. But, given the "Third Way" imperatives of the Blair government, it is also claimed to be radically democratic, transferring power from central and regional bureaucracies to local communities. This is happening in many ways, such as transferring decision making power to primary care practices and putting lay members on their boards; creating Health Action Zones controlled by elected community representatives; and giving local government more scrutiny powers over health authorities. Just as important has been the use of apparently deliberative democratic means of engaging with citizens. Health policy actors at various levels inside and outside government have been using citizens' juries, consensus conferences, citizens' panels and so on, not just as consultative exercises but also for real decision making. However, the results of the encounter between deliberative democracy, "Third Wayism", and a new public management focused bureaucracy, embedded in a liberal state, are unlikely to be straightforward. In this paper, I concentrate on the use of deliberative techniques as a starting point to examine that encounter. Drawing on interviews with 30 health policy actors, I look at how deliberative techniques have been used and why they have become popular in certain sections of the NHS. The analysis reveals issues to do with state legitimation and the roles of citizens and experts, and will question whether the reforms are truly as dramatic a revolution as they are claimed to be, or whether it is a matter of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts, Department of Political Science, Melbourne University
The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics (OCAP)
This project funded by the Australian Research Council will produce a scholarly and comprehensive account of Australian Politics in a single volume work of reference accessible to general readers as well as scholars and professionals. The Companion will focus on key ideas used in scholarly writing on Australian politics, from past works to contemporary paradigms and current thinking; include key political institutions and events from the colonial past to the present, covering imperial and international relations, national, state and local government as well as non-governmental organizations, political movements and pressure groups; give coverage of milestones and trends in Australian politics and intergovernmental relations; and profile significant political actors. The Companion will include a compendium of factual information on key topics of Australian politics such as lists of Governors, Prime Ministers, State Premiers and results of referendums. The project will be assisted by a panel of Associate Editors to advise on the proposed framework, list of topics and the commissioning of major entries. The project will consult with colleagues and contributors at the annual Australasian Political Studies Association conferences. The paper will outline the proposal and present the draft framework and headwords.

Ian Marsh, Australian National University
Interest group participation in Senate committee enquiries
This paper reports the results of a survey of interest groups and social movements giving evidence to Senate Committees in calendar year 2000. The survey covered some 300 groups and the response rate was about 40%. The survey covered groups giving evidence to enquiries of three types: strategic or agenda entry enquiries; oversight enquiries; and legislative enquiries. Approximately equal numbers of respondents came from each category. The survey covered the 'learning' and 'teaching' effects of participation in enquiries, including the internal steps taken to gather evidence and prepare a case, the stimulus to coalition building, attitudes to the enquiry process, reports to members, perceived impact on the process, attitudes to the findings, overall attitudes to the experience. The Australian results are contrasted with the results of an identical survey conducted in the UK in the mid 1980s.

Elizabeth Eedy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast
Unresolved accountability issues in Australian higher education reform: A case-study
The wave of public sector reforms that have swept through all three levels of Australian government in recent decades privileges the already strong emphasis on technical rationality as a guide to administrative processes and outcomes. Administrative technical rationality has long been subject to criticism on a number of grounds, not least its propensity for depoliticisation of matters that should remain areas of contestation in the public area. The higher education sector has been caught up in this wave of reform and the debate around it, particularly through the development and implementation of institution-specific policies that carry out the current Federal Government's education reform agenda. This paper presents a case-study of several policy areas under development in one university, in order to explore the tension between the assertion and suppression of 'values' that underpins some of the controversy about current education policy, and the reform process in general. Central to this exploration are accountability issues, referring primarily to improved responsiveness to the 'community' and greater fiscal and productivity efficiencies, that underpin performance and output assessments that constitute part of the reform process.

Jenny M Lewis, Centre for the Study of Health and Society, Department of Political Science, University of Melbourne
Making connections and setting the agenda: Health policy networks and issues in Victoria
Networks of influence and networks around specific issues structure policy agendas and constrain policy making. This paper examines network structures of influence and networks around particular issues in health in Victoria. A snowballing method was used to generate a list of people who were regarded as influential in the health sector. 62 of the 115 people contacted completed forms nominating who they regarded as having influence and indicating whether they had ongoing contact with those nominated. Blockmodelling of these data generated eight blocks: a core block of influentials; one associated with acute care and other health services; one of public health academics; one associated with Monash University; one of people interested in particular communities or diseases; one with a consumer and legal focus; one of people who were peripheral but connected; and one of people who listed influentials only in their defined areas. On the basis of these nominations, 20 people were asked in interviews about the main current issues they were working on and who they were working with. Issue networks were then generated, highlighting the different configurations and structures that surround different policy issues in the health sector. The results were compared with the health sector information from the Victorian Agendas Study carried out in 1991-3. Substantial changes in who is seen to be influential and what the main issues are in health have occurred over the last decade.

Kasumi Nishigaya, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University
Young women garment factory workers in post-UNTAC Cambodia: Export-orientation, decent work deficit and sexual health risk
Privatization and export-orientation characterize the structural adjustment processes of Post-UNTAC Cambodia. They have precipitated Cambodia's transition from a tranquil agrarian economy to a capitalist economy, rapidly restructuring the social relations in production and reproduction. Combined with the indigenous patterns of gender relations, they have serious implications for women's power base and health status. Propelled by the proliferation of direct and discreet commercial sex, the emergence and spread of HIV/AIDS epidemic coincides with the above structural adjustment processes. Yet, the government attention has mainly focused on public health interventions targeting the recognized 'risk groups' such as brothel-based sex workers, military and police. In a culture where women are expected to be 'virtuous virgins' till marriage, very little is known about the sexual health of young women in Cambodia. This paper examines the determinants of the sexual health risk experienced by young women workers in post-UNTAC Cambodia. Multiple research methods were executed in close collaboration with the Union Aid-Australia and ten former and current women workers. The results highlight that some women workers took up direct and discreet sex work in order to supplement their low factory income. Their decisions were mainly influenced by the market forces, very weak tripartite relations to improve labor conditions, and family expectations for daughters to earn cash. In order to enhance women workers' economic power base and hence to alleviate their sexual risk, the paper calls for a more inclusive policy approach by incorporating distributive elements into the current macroeconomic policy, protecting and promoting labour rights >and strengthening peer-based rights education.

Tim Tenbensel, Political Studies, University of Auckland
'Let the people decide': Will policy processes designed to facilitate 'direct' influence on policy outcomes by citizens and consumers deliver more legitimate policy?
For some time now, governments have routinely acknowledged that public policy processes suffer from legitimacy problems. These are the problems that stem from the power relationships that characterise policymaking institutions, particularly the constellation of interest groups and government agencies. In their attempts to address such problems, government agencies often sponsor more 'direct' policy process mechanisms. The aim of these mechanisms is to enable the wishes and preferences of citizens and/or consumers to be translated more directly and transparently into public policy outcomes. These mechanisms and the rationale supporting them are inspired by the theoretical traditions of public choice and participatory democracy. While these are apparently conflicting traditions, the similarities between them are highly significant. Both take as their starting point a fundamental scepticism towards the legitimacy of policymaking institutions. What happens, then, when agencies of the state adopt the language and techniques of these 'anti-institutional' approaches in order to bolster the legitimacy of institutional policy processes? To what extent can public faith in government be restored by the use of more direct policy process mechanisms? Using international examples of health policy decision-making as a starting point, this paper suggests some answers to these questions.

Warren Talbot, School of Social Science and Policy, University of New South Wales
Inside, outside and offside: HIV/AIDS policy discourses in Australia, 1989
Australia's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been praised for its success both in stemming the spread of the epidemic and providing a model for public health partnerships. The Australian approach was crystallised with the release of a Commonwealth Government White (Policy Information) Paper in August 1989. This paper is not primarily concerned with the veracity of those claims. Rather it examines the multiple policy discourses engaged in that policy process from the perspective of the writer, who was a policy insider at the time. The discussion questions the extent and manner in which the contributions of major players (community-based organizations, bureaucrats, clinicians and researchers) have subsequently been valorised in many accounts of the Australian response. The perspective offered is that of in insider, as a lobbyist for Australia's national NGO AIDS organization, but also as an appointed member of the drafting team for the White Paper. It is suggested that the 1989 Paper is best seen as the legitimisation, institutionalisation and justification for existing policies being adopted in many States and community groups. The spread of the virus had been substantially slowed five years prior to the White Paper. HIV's public health partnership, though, was cemented in the structured commitment of new resources that were delivered as a part of the four year Strategy. Individual actors played key roles.

Lisa Hill, University of Adelaide.
Democratic assistance: A template for compulsory voting
Compulsory voting could be a valuable aid in the consolidation of civic habits and the prevention of civic demobilisation in both emerging and established democracies. After the last round of national elections in Britain and North America, interest has grown in compulsory voting as an antidote to the world-wide trend towards civic demobilisation. This paper provides a preliminary sketch of an ideal compulsory voting regime suitable for adoption by established democracies considering a switch from a voluntary to a compulsory system. This 'export' standard template is loosely based on the Australian model with appropriate modifications as suggested by comparative and domestic experience. Recommended changes include limiting, where possible, the more coercive aspects of compulsory voting arrangements. There are also suggestions for reforms aimed at offsetting the charge that compulsion limits democratic choice.

Marion Maddox, Religious Studies, Victoria University, Wellington NZ
Religion and Australian politics: Out of the methodological bog
A number of studies have drawn attention to ongoing questions about the place of religion in Australian politics. Religious effects in political life are relatively straightforward to describe, but have proved to elude ready explanation. In the words of one recent study, explanatory attempts are repeatedly mired in 'conceptual under-development, implausibility and contradiction'. In many cases, this is because the explanatory attempts are built upon assumptions about the nature of religious adherence long discredited in religious studies. This paper examines approaches from the disciplines of religious studies and theology which offer paths out of the methodological bog.

Katharine Gelber, School of Politics and International Relations, UNSW
The scope of the implied right to freedom of political communication
Since the 1992 free speech cases in the High Court, which elucidated an implied right to freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution, the question of what this implied right actually means has become an important one. This paper examines the scope of this implied right from the perspective of struggles over its meaning and implementation. First the 1992 decisions and selected later High Court delimitations of the implied right are analysed. Within this context, the specific question of the regulation of pedestrian malls is examined. In both Queensland and Tasmania pedestrian malls which would under many circumstances be considered public space, are regulated by local councils in a manner which restricts free expression. These restrictions are examined in terms of what they reveal about the scope and implementation of the negative liberty of an implied constitutional free speech right.

Australian foreign policy & East Timor: People, states and fear
Chair: Prue Torrance

Gary Smith, Deakin University
The expansion of sovereign Australia: Frontiers, borders, boundaries and identity in Greater Australia
The map of Sovereign Australia at the start of the twentieth century was defined by the coastline of the continent and a three-mile territorial limit over the oceans. The map of Sovereign Australia for the twenty-first century incorporates a massive geographical space, extending into the Indian and Southern Oceans, the Western Pacific, and pushing north and east until it meets the counterclaims of other states. Added to a sovereignty claim over large parts of Antarctica and the associated seas. Australia has, with limited reflection and without strategic design, become one of the world's largest territorial and ocean entities. 'Greater Australia' is built upon the dynamic interaction between Australian continental and island platform and the emerging International Convention on the Law of the Sea, which established Exclusive Economic Zones for coastal states. This interaction creates a new, and still expanding boundary around Australia. Australia has trebled its physical size, and with new giganticism comes new and multi-layered boundaries, new zones of the legal jurisdiction, new lines between the (national) self and the (non-national) other. Three sets of issues are identified:
1. New borders —and complex engagements with neighbours: Indonesia, East Timor, PNG, France and Antarctic claimants.
2. New boundaries — risks and securities in international relations: Defending extensive and often distant oceans against the unlawful intrusions of other states, or private actors; Greater exposure to the growing movement of peoples across the world, as refugees, or 'illegal non citizens'; Strategic vulnerabilities created by sovereignty over remote islands and island communities; Maintaining the Antarctic Treaty system
3. Politics and policy inside the zone: The border within: The Federal/State line of control; 'Sea Country' : Native title beyond the continent; Distant island settlements; Antarctic dreams; Oceans: environmental and economic issues.

May McPhail, Griffith University
The East Timor intervention: Foreign policy success or failure?
When the Howard Government announced the 'historic policy shift on East Timor' in January 1999, few predicted the events that were to follow. This paper examines the circumstances leading up to that decision, and the sequence of events that followed. It is argued that Australia's image and standing in the Asian region, rather than being enhanced, was diminished by the way in which the change in policy was implemented, in particular, by the 'megaphone diplomacy' associated with the intervention in East Timor.

Jefferson Lee, School of Communication, Design and Media, University of Western Sydney (Nepean)
The media and East Timor: Taking stock of the post mortems
This paper will review the shifting sands in media coverage of the East Timor issue in Australia. Taking the tumultuous events of the second half of 1999 as the highwater mark of Australian political and media interest, this paper will offer a tentative examination of media revisionism from the conservative Right and the 'Jakarta Lobby' - from the lead up into the aftermath of the Interfet Commitment. It will also reflect on how the the Howard Government's claims to the high moral ground on East Timor prevented a political snowballing from the Left on what should have been "their" victory. Political scientists were quick to argue that East Timor was an aberration from the normalcy and continuity of Australian foreign policy. To what extent did the media coverage since 1999 ensure a backsliding away from the Right's latest fears - a 'domino theory' in reverse? One where regional security sabre-rattlers were reminiscent of their "One,Too Many Vietnams" days as they foresaw East Timor's independence inspiring the Aceh and West Papua shake-outs that are yet to happen?

Ashley Lavelle, Griffith University
The ALP and class struggle: A case study of the Whitlam Labor Opposition's response to union unrest in the late 1960 and early 1970s
It is nowadays somewhat platitudinous to associate the Australian Labor Party with class struggle. However, history shows that dramatic increases in class struggle can impact on the ALP in important ways. This paper examines, from a Marxist perspective, the effects on the Whitlam Labor Opposition of the rise in industrial conflict in Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is argued that the most notable effect of the biggest upsurge in trade union unrest since the end of WW1 was the militant, class-conscious rhetoric of many Labor MPs, who were often compelled to advocate direct action as the only, and best, option available to unions as a means by which to achieve wage and other gains. However, the effects were not simply rhetorical, with the Clarrie O'Shea strikes in 1969 producing in Labor a much tougher policy on the abolition of penal clauses. The party leadership was forced spectacularly in 1971, as a direct result of union pressure, to retreat from the policy of retaining some penalties in order to deter strikes. Similarly, the Whitlam Opposition's pledge of a shorter working week to Commonwealth public servants cannot be seen in isolation from the urgency with which the question was approached by the union movement at the time. Some commentators concluded then that, as result of all this, Whitlam had failed in his objective of ridding the party of its trade union-dominated image. The paper concludes on the question of how a major rise in class struggle would impact on today's ALP. It is proffered tentatively that, while such a development would elicit a weaker and more cautious response from a leadership arguably more removed from union activists and its working class constituents than at any time in the party's history, it would nevertheless, all things being equal, lead to a radicalisation on the part of many individuals and sections of the party, and may well induce significant policy changes.

Martin Hirst, University of Queensland
The ties that bind: Journalists and the nation-state
A political party attempts to position itself as the one which speaks for the nation, by aligning itself with dominant groups or constituencies…Similarly, other, less formally constituted groups of interests also make their bids for temporary identification with the discursive category 'the nation'. Beer companies define their product as the 'Australian' one; petrol companies mask their foreign ownership…What is won is the capacity to speak on behalf of the nation. (Turner 1994, p.11) Throughout the 20th Century, journalists always believed they had the capacity and the right to speak on behalf of the nation. The media also seeks this capacity ? to express the emotional dialectic that constitutes a nation (Mercer 1992). This paper examines why this is the case and begins with an analysis of the dominant ideology that has historically bound Australian journalists to the nation-dtate. The following sections then document historical moments when the tension between national interest and class interest has been evident in the press and media of the time. For the purpose of analysis and discussion I have, where possible and appropriate, related this to the lives and work of individuals who embody one or another of the values under discussion. This paper demonstrates that the Australian media is and always has been, with few noteable exceptions, firmly attached to an emotional dialectic of the national interest. The exceptions, I argue, are evidence for the existence of a grey collar ideology - that is a class consciousness - among some newsworkers. Consequently I discuss how these 'ideological spectacles' (Grattan 1991) operate in relation to the coverage of significant Australian foreign policy and domestic political issues of the past decade. Throughout this paper I have applied an approach I call 'media archaeology' ? the excavation, sifting, sorting and classifying of media 'artefacts' ? as a way of illustrating my argument that Australian journalism has, for the most part, always been sympathetic to a world-view characterised by the so-called 'national interest'. That is, a position generally supportive of the emotional dialectic which informs the 'narrative' of the 'nation' ? the ideological belief that the elected government embodies the national ideals, interests, culture and consciousness on our behalf.

Kyoung-Hee Moon, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University
Dualism of development: What has changed and what hasn't changed in terms of the pattern of female employment in the Korean apparel industry?
The apparel industry has made a significant contribution to Korean economic growth and accounted for a great deal of women's labour participation in the process of industrialisation. In the past, particularly from the 1960s through the early 1980s when the export-oriented industry was Korea's economic survival strategy, women were predominantly absorbed in the apparel industry as a major flexible low-waged labour resource, accounting for the success of the industry. However, increases in labour costs followed by engagement with Korea's political democracy and economic liberalism since the late 1980s appeared to transfer a number of labour-intensive production lines, including the apparel, to foreign countries with the availability of a lower-waged form of labour. As a consequence, the contribution of the apparel industry has weakened in terms of economic growth and workforce participation, specifically female. Meanwhile, despite such changes, the poor qualities of women's work embracing low wages and location in low-profiled jobs still remain in the contemporary Korean apparel industry. This cycle of thriving and declining life of the Korean apparel industry and the pattern of female workers' employment in the industry can be explained by the concept of the new international division of labour, referring to the world system for production both in capital-exporting countries and capital-dependent countries. Therefore, this paper examines the historical trajectory and current state of the Korean apparel industry focusing on changes in the female workers' employment pattern. In order to seek the most appropriate explanations for these changes, this paper uses an inter-disciplinary approach within the political and socio-economic context of Korea. Preliminary findings of this research have shown that the integrated theory of global capitalism and patriarchy in relation to the new international division of labour is able to provide a deep understanding on the pattern and condition of female workers' employment in the Korean apparel industry.

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