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The Australian Experiment of Compulsory Arbitration

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Social Welfare 1850–1950

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Abstract

The compulsory arbitration system of Australia and New Zealand, which inspired one American professor at the turn of the century to describe it as ‘the most notable experiment yet made in social democracy’, can be seen as the pinnacle of the antipodean social experiments which earned the colonies the title of ‘social laboratory of the world’ at the turn of the century.1 That Australasia was seen as a ‘laboratory’, particularly in the area of labour relations, can be attributed to the existence of similar reform movements in other advanced industrial capitalist countries.

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NOTES

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  3. This can be ascertained from reading journals such as the Survey, Life and Labor, American Labor Legislation Review, Journal of Political Economy, American Journal of Sociology, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, as well as books and pamphlets written by notable labour reformers.

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Authors
  1. Diane Kirkby
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, United Kingdom

    D. C. M. Platt (Professor of the History of Latin America) (Professor of the History of Latin America)

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© 1989 D. C. M. Platt

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Kirkby, D. (1989). The Australian Experiment of Compulsory Arbitration. In: Platt, D.C.M. (eds) Social Welfare 1850–1950. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10343-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10343-0_7

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-10345-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-10343-0

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