Political Economy

Abstract

The state has played a central role in Australian economic life since settlement, a role taken still further with the advent of protectionism and arbitration as part of the Australian Settlement of early in the 20th century. Given this tradition of what Hancock (1930) described as ‘state socialism’, one would expect political economy approaches to figure prominently in accounts of Australian political life. While the impact of economic relations is central to many seminal accounts of Australian politics and government (Hancock 1930; Eggleston 1932), intellectual trends and disciplinary rivalries meant that post-war Australian political science largely neglected research in the political economy tradition; indeed Aitkin’s 1985 survey of the discipline (Aitkin 1985b) did not include a chapter on political economy. Despite this relative neglect during APSA’s formative years, the last two decades have seen increasing numbers of political scientists researching important topics in Australian political economy.

I would like to thank Brian Head, Stephen Bell and Rod Rhodes for their comments on a preliminary draft of this chapter as well as Jennifer O’Farrell and Rhys Stubbs for research assistance. Errors and omissions remain my responsibility.