Australasian Political Studies Association Conference 2003
Hosted by the School of Government
University of Tasmania

Timetable Session Three Abstracts
Monday 29 September: 4.00 p.m. - 5.30 p.m.

Becky Shelley, University of Tasmania
Democratisation in East Asia: The Ambiguous Role of the United Nations

This paper analyses the ambiguous impact of the United Nations upon democratic development in South Korea, Taiwan and China. It argues that during the cold war the United Nations’ stance toward the East Asian region facilitated the development of certain authoritarian political forms in South Korea and Taiwan. Moreover the United Nations isolation of China, internationally, strengthened China’s totalitarian tendency. The paper contends that the United Nations’ eventual decision to recognise China had significant (unintentional) consequences for democratisation in the region.

Rob Imre, University of Notre Dame Australia
Comparing Multiculturalisms: Integral Australia and Liberal Canada

Multicultural policies, ideas about multiculturalism, and expectations from all sides differ vastly. Australian multiculturalism developed to accommodate migrants that were increasingly discontent with the Australian integral approach. Canadian multiculturalism developed with the notion of accommodating a particular minority ‘other’ politically, socially and economically; and then expanding this notion to include more ‘others’. There is a great difference between the two types of multicultural approaches and these differences both reflect and inform the type of citizenships that have emerged or evolved in the two nation-states. Further, one nation, Australia, acts as a belligerent neighbor and the other nation, Canada, lives in perpetual discontent due to a belligerent neighbor. In the Whitlam era, the Australian government made an attempt to model the Australian policies on the Canadian policies. There are great differences between these two nations; two nations that are often assumed to be very similar in their development.

In this paper I examine the various aspects of intentions and policies. I argue that Australia and Canada have fundamentally different approaches to multiculturalism and as a result, their respective versions of citizenship and obligations to the nation-state are fundamentally different. Further, I argue that the contemporary manifestations of citizen participation create a divergence in the two nation-states that is more dissimilar than previously acknowledged. My conclusion is that the Australian version is much more liberal-integrationalist, like the United States, and the Canadian version is more similar to Aoteroa/New Zealand in its guarantee of the acceptance of the ‘other’. This leaves us with the notion that much of the current discussion about refugees and asylum-seekers is directly linked to these ideas of multiculturalism, citizenship and the nation-state.

Andrew Scott, RMIT University
“Putting the Australian Labor Party in International Perspective”

This paper will assess the Australian Labor Party's current debates over future directions with reference to attempts by the left of centre political parties in other western nations, especially in Western Europe, to deal with the end of the economic "golden age" since the early 1970s and the widespread resurgence of neo-liberal ideologies since the late 1970s. The dominant recent view of such comparisons has through the ideological lens of the "Third Way". This vision however tends not to see relevant variations between the experiences of social democratic parties in individual Western European nations as they have sought to deal with adverse circumstances since the early 1970s. Nor does the Third Way view sufficiently extend to the widely varying background landscapes: that is, the different levels of historical achievement by left-of-centre parties in the different nations. Some social democratic parties in European countries are pursuing more progressive political agendas than the British Labour Party under Tony Blair and they are starting from a very different basis of policy achievement and political strength than either the British or Australian labour parties. The nature and extent of these international differences need now to be highlighted from an Australian political perspective in order to better inform the current debate about the range of options for the ALP and the current comparative condition of the Australian party system. As part of this analysis, the relationship between the erosion of the traditional blue-collar support bases of the major left of centre parties in various nations, amid economic restructuring and challenges to traditional immigration patterns, and the rise of support for anti-immigrant policies and parties, need to be carefully examined and evaluated.

Stephen Tomblin, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Ability To Manage Change Through Regionalization: Theory versus Practice

Ideas about governance and public management have changed with globalization, declining deference and growing scepticism about traditional ideas, processes and institutions. The sustainability of current practices and processes are being questioned by critics and there is growing pressure to bring about structural reforms. Some critics even suggest that the survival of our political system is at risk.

Meaningful citizen participation and collaboration, however, requires employing strategies that involve sharing information, problem-solving, decision-making, and responsibility across interactive state-society networks and existing boundaries. As one would expect, bringing this about is easier said than done. To date, much of the discussion on regionalization and restructuring has been more prescriptive than analytical. Consequently, there has been less discussion on the determinants or inhibitors to reform, and how to "go from here to there." Nor has there been much emphasis placed on incorporating a historical or comparative perspective. It is also questionable whether, regionalization is, in fact, more democratic or community-based. With this in mind, the paper will provide a detailed critical, comparative analysis of the kind of pressures that have led to calls for regionalization, and why, despite this pressure, building support for new approaches has remained a challenge, and regional reforms have been limited in scope.

Terry McDonald, Nuffield College, U.K.
‘Stakeholders’ in Global Democracy: Representing Transnational Interests in International Organisations

This paper defends the proposition that transnational groups such as environmental and human rights advocates, trade unionists, religious communities, women, and business and professional communities (often represented by transnational NGOs) have a democratic entitlement to a role in decision-making within International Organisations on the grounds that they are ‘stakeholders’ in the decisions. It argues that transnational ‘stakeholder’ constituencies, defined as transnational groups of individuals with a shared ‘stake’ or ‘interest’ in the outcome of a particular decision, should be represented alongside national (territorial) constituencies within institutions of global governance, and presents a theoretical account of interest representation as a basis for the practical enactment of this entitlement within International Organisations.

The paper first discusses the way in which processes of ‘globalisation’ are diminishing the extent to which individuals share their primary political interests with co-nationals, and are intensifying the personal significance of various transnational solidarities. It illustrates that the current territorial (statist) structures of representation within International Organisations privilege national and intra-national interests over these transnational interests. The paper then draws on David Held’s democratic ‘principle of autonomy’ to argue that transnational interest groups (conceptualised as transnational ‘stakeholder constituencies’) are entitled to representation equivalent to that of national and intra-national interest groups. Some theoretical and practical difficulties that would arise in enacting their entitlement to representation within International Organisations are identified.

To overcome these difficulties, a model for the representation of ‘stakeholder constituencies’ is then presented, building on Hanna Pitkin’s analysis of two different conceptions of interest representation _ ‘Burkean’ and ‘liberal’. This model builds a bridge between Pitkin’s two ideal types of interest representation, based on a distinction between partially and comprehensively attached interests. The model accepts that interests are attached to individuals and groups, and are subjectively determined by these individuals; in this sense it is based strongly in the liberal conception of interests. However, the model challenges the particular way in which Pitkin’s liberal conception of interests sees them as ‘attached’ to these groups of individuals. It is concluded that this model of interest representation provides a theoretical framework for enacting the democratic entitlement of transnational constituencies to representation within institutions of global governance.

Ilona Klimova, University of New South Wales
Non-State Ethnic Actors in International Relations: the Transnational Romani (Gypsy) Movement and the United Nations

This paper explores the limits of action and influence that ethnic groups without a state can have in international politics within the framework of the UN system. It shows that in the current international system ethnic groups seeking non-territorial self-determination are restricted to advancing their demands through an NGO consultative status. Moreover, their demands are likely to be addressed only if they are voiced in terms of violations of economic, social and cultural rights, while demands for political rights such as self-determination, recognised international political status and political representation adequate to such status are ignored. Despite the damaging historical experience of disruption of international peace and security caused by national and ethnic conflicts over territory, ethnic actors are forced to make territorial demands if they want to achieve self-determination, dignity, recognition and representation in the international system.

In order to illustrate the above arguments, the paper presents the results of a detailed case study of interaction between the transnational Romani movement and the UN system, based on primary sources and extensive fieldwork over a three-year period. It describes the Roma-related agenda, discursive and procedural/institutional developments in the UN system which resulted from the movement’s lobbying. It evaluates the movement’s successes and failures in pursuit of their goals in terms of external factors (such as the political opportunity structure provided by the movement’s status at the UN, the prevailing strategies adopted by the UN towards the movement, and the UN configuration of power) and in terms of internal factors (such as the movement’s organisation, financial and human resources, strategies, etc.). It concentrates on the movement’s so far unfulfilled quest for international political representation, to be compared with the success of other movements who have achieved some representation (either through an observer status at the General Assembly or another institutional channel beyond the NGO consultative status), and accounts for this difference in outcome.

Aynsley Kellow, University of Tasmania
Privilege and Underprivilege: Countervailing Groups and the Trajectory of Mining Industry Organization at the International Level

This paper focuses on the role of the mining and metals industry and the various countervailing powers, especially environmental groups, seeking to influence public policy at international levels. A comprehensive international non-governmental organization to represent the mining and metals industry was not, however, formed until 2001. The International Council on Mining and Metals was limited in scope but succeeded in bringing together all the key participants in the global non-ferrous metals industry, which is playing an active role in policy development at the international level. This chapter will argue that international business representation is problematic because 'the privileged position of business' (in Lindblom's terms) usually does not translate to the international level, so the key question is what factors provide an industrial sector with sufficient reasons to associate and participate in the formation of public policy. It will examine the role of countervailing groups in helping provide an impetus for establishing an international mining and metals group, arguing that, while the activities of 'underprivileged' NGOs on environment and development issues superficially appear to have been important, many of the significant activities of these groups have represented a continuation by other means of more traditional struggles over issues like industrial relations. This will be illustrated by reference to campaigns against Rio Tinto, which then became a lead company in the formation of ICMM.

Barry Hindess, Australian National University
Liberalism - What’s in a Name?

Standard academic accounts of liberalism tend to present it, on the one hand, as concerned with relations between the state and its subjects and, on the other, as committed to the promotion and defence of individual liberty and/or private property. Even specialists in international relations and international political economy, who have no truck with the first of these elements, tend to endorse some version of the second. This paper disputes both. Accounts of liberalism in these terms have been advanced in more or less sophisticated forms, sometimes by supporters of liberalism and sometimes by its critics, and there can be no denying that liberals frequently have strong views about these issues. The argument, then, is not so much that such accounts are entirely false but rather that they are all seriously incomplete.

My discussion is particularly concerned to stress, along with international relations and international political economy, the cosmopolitan, supra-state aspects of the liberal tradition. However, if we are to fully grasp the character of this cosmopolitanism, it is also necessary to focus on liberalism’s governmental character, that is, on its concern with mundane problems involved in the government of populations. We shall see that this focus undermines the second element of the standard accounts noted above: the view that liberalism is committed to the promotion and defence of individual liberty and/or private property. I suggest not only that the adoption of this broader view of liberalism fosters a better understanding of the work of central figures in the liberal tradition but also, more importantly, that it provides a fuller and more powerful account of liberal governmental practice at both national and supra-national levels – and especially of many recent developments which, for want of a better name, tend to be grouped together under the label of neo-liberalism.

Vicki Spencer, University of Adelaide
Cultural Pluralism Revisited: A Study of Herder and Parekh’s Theories of Culture

Bikhu Parekh in his recent Rethinking Multiculturalism (2000) acknowledges the contribution of the eighteenth century German philosopher, Johann Gotffried Herder to philosophical and political thought in recognising the importance of culture in his account of humanity and the value of cultural pluralism. However, in his rejection of monism, Parekh maintains that Herder nevertheless made the mistake also evident in the work of thinkers like Vico, Montesquieu and Burke of seeing culture as a tightly knit and unified whole. Thus while he fully appreciated the diversity between different cultures, Herder was oblivious to the diversity existing within cultural communities. It is a view of Herder based on a limited reading of his work that is quickly becoming orthodoxy in Anglo-American political thought. This paper demonstrates on the contrary that Herder was fully aware of the heterogenous nature of cultures and warned against any such oversimplification of their dynamic nature. It argues further that while Herder’s and Parkeh’s conceptions of culture are in fact remarkably similar, Herder’s interpretative approach holds certain advantages for a reformist political agenda over that of Parkeh’s.

George Crowder, Flinders University
Pluralism, Relativism and Liberalism in Isaiah Berlin

At the heart of Isaiah Berlin's political thought is an attempt to combine liberal universalism with value pluralism. But Berlin's pluralism has often been interpreted, either explicitly or in effect, as a form of relativism, and therefore as contradicting the universalist thrust of his politics. I argue that relativist interpretations of Berlin fail to appreciate a genuine distinction between relativism and pluralism. The confusion of these two ideas is partly attributable to Berlin himself - his work on Vico and Herder is especially misleading in this regard - although he does clarify the distinction in a later essay. Even once pluralism is separated from relativism any attempt to link pluralism with liberalism faces problems that are not wholly resolved by Berlin's arguments in the form in which he states them. But I show how one of those arguments might be revived as part of a persuasive pluralist case for liberalism.

Sally Young, The University of Melbourne
Scare campaigns: Negative political advertising in Australia

In recent years, as the mediated nature of contemporary Australian politics becomes more apparent, greater attention has been paid to the role of political advertising. In particular, one of the areas which has attracted attention is the use of negative political advertising.
This is based on concerns that the use of negative advertising has become more prevalent, more vicious and more personal. There are also fears that such changes are a consequence of ‘Americanization’—the importation of American campaign techniques.

This paper reports the results of the most comprehensive study of negative political advertising in Australia. The author used content analysis on a sample of 1335 newspaper and television advertisements produced by the major political parties during federal elections between 1949-2001. The results reveal that the use of negative political advertising in Australia has historically been high however, in recent elections, negativity has become even more prevalent. Comparing the results with overseas studies which have used the same methodology suggests that negative political advertising is higher in Australia than in most comparable Western democracies—including the US. However, there are still some important differences in emphasis. Negative ads in the U.S. focus more on the personal characteristics of opponents than in Australia—where negative ads still generally focus on policy and performance issues.

Overall, the results suggest that negative political advertising in Australia is not an entirely new trend, nor a result of ‘Americanization’. The use of hard-hitting, negative discourse has a long history in Australia. A fiercely partisan, two-party adversarial system has made negativity a distinct feature of Australian political advertising. The results tend to confirm the informal observation that spending ‘heavily on extensive and overwhelmingly negative television advertising’ is a trademark of Australian elections (Butler quoted in Plasser & Plasser 2002, p. 268).

Katharine Gelber, University of New South Wales
Freedom of political speech in pedestrian malls – a national survey

This paper builds on work undertaken previously regarding the application of the constitutionally implied “freedom of political communication” to speech regulation and speech policy. Since 1992 the High Court of Australia has developed a limited implied constitutional freedom of political communication. I am concerned to investigate the effects of this constitutional development on speech policy, and specifically its effects on the regulation of “political speech”. This paper reports on an empirical investigation I have undertaken into the regulation of political speech. It analyses the results of a national survey of local government regulatory practices and policies regarding political speech in pedestrian malls. The survey investigates by-laws and regulations covering 115 pedestrian malls around Australia, in every state and territory. The results are startling. They reveal the existence of broadly conceived and executed local government regulations, which appear in many instances to encroach on the constitutional freedom as conceptualised and developed by the High Court. Also, the regulatory frameworks differ widely between jurisdictions, exposing a problem of policy inconsistency in the application of the High Court doctrine to the regulation of political speech by local governments. The analysis also reveals a trend towards permitting private sector interests to regulate public space in increasingly restrictive ways.

Marian Sawer, Australian National University
The Impact of Populism on Equal Opportunity Agendas: The Construction of Women as a "Special Interest"

In a number of western democracies populism has been increasing its impact on public discourse. Populism seeks to mobilise opposition to elites in the name of the people. It constructs a ‘great divide’ between people and elite, which renders invisible the political significance of other forms of difference, including gender. Traditional populism was reinforced in the last quarter of the 20th century from other directions, in particular new class theory and the public choice–inspired concept of ‘special interests’.

New class theory, as adapted by US neo-conservatives in the 1970s, suggests there is a new class of university-educated intellectuals, radicalised by the social movements of the 1960s, who are employed in the public sector and communication industries. While promoting state intervention in the name of equal opportunity, in fact they have contempt for the ordinary people whose taxes support their privileges. While socialists were once the main threat to freedom, now the main threat is posed by feminists, environmentalists and those who promote minority rights.

The complementary notion of ‘special interests’ has been promoted by recent public choice theory. The neo-classical model of the utility-maximising individual is applied to all social and political action. Public-interest groups are revealed as ‘rent-seekers’, trying to achieve better returns through the state than can be obtained from the market. Bureaucrats and advocates conspire to secure their own interests under the pretext of promoting equality for disadvantaged groups.

The discursive shift whereby equality seeking is constructed as an elite interest, contrary to the interests and aspirations of the mainstream, represents a profound change in the political opportunity structure for feminist agendas. This paper uses Australian and Canadian evidence to analyse the nature and implications of this discursive shift for gender mainstreaming and equal opportunity.

Louise Chappell, University of Sydney
Finding space for women’s interests: developments at the UN ad hoc tribunals and the International Criminal Court

In recent years women’s activists have worked hard to add a gender dimension to the workings of emerging international institutions including the UN ad hoc tribunals on the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. Through their efforts they have made some significant advances in bringing to light the complex, diverse and unique aspects of women’s lives previously ignored in international criminal and humanitarian law. Advances include: the recognition of sexual violence as a grave breach of international law relating to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide; the redefinition of the crime of rape and the acknowledgment of gender as a basis for persecution. Feminist pressure has also helped to encourage an acceptance of the representation of women and gender interests within the ICC. Although there is still much to be done, feminist activists have demonstrated that there is a place for ‘women’s interests’ under international law and that by taking these interests into account can make a real difference to women’s lives in times of conflict.

Jennifer Curtin, Monash University
Representing the “interests” of women in the paid maternity leave debate

Up until last year, Australia and New Zealand, alongside the United States, were the only western, liberal democratic nations that did not have a paid maternity/parental leave scheme in place. This is despite the entrenched position of women in the paid labour market and both international and local rhetorical commitments to the importance of ensuring a work-family balance. In this paper I review how paid maternity leave in Australia has been represented as a policy issue or ‘problem’ and examine the assumptions about women’s place in society that underlie these representations. In particular I focus on the depiction of motherhood and feminine identity by various government, non-government and individual actors involved in the debate and the construction of policy options. In doing so, I analyse to what extent the options presented offer a challenge to the conventional conceptions of women’s ‘interests’ as workers and mothers.

Elizabeth van Acker, Griffith University
Media Portrayals of Politicians and Women’s Interests: Saviours, Sinners or Stars

Feminists argue that interests, like identity, are multiple, changeable, created and recreated. Women’s interests are varied and difficult to define. This paper questions whether the media captures this diversity and complexity of ‘women’s interests’ by examining media portrayals of women politicians in Australia and New Zealand. Media constructions of femininity are often one-dimensional, so we cannot accept these portrayals as expressions of people’s interests. Setting up stereotyped distinctions of femininity contributes little to pushing women’s interests on to the political agenda in any meaningful way.

High profile women have been regarded as novel and unusual. The paper argues that media representations often construct these women in one of three ways. The media creates elevated expectations around them anticipating that they will save their political parties from their problems. Set up as ‘saviours’, these women can do no wrong as the media raises them on a pedestal. Inevitably, however, they fail to achieve such high expectations. Other women become what I call ‘sinners’ as they have difficulty in fitting into a male-dominated political environment. The Australian media, unlike the New Zealand media, also shapes some women into political ‘stars’, marketing them as celebrities. The women themselves are quite willing to embrace public recognition in this way. Whatever the constructed ‘category’, when women make mistakes, the media judges them particularly harshly. I argue that media coverage of women demonstrates how gender remains embedded in politics [and vice versa]. Simplistic portrayals do not question gender norms. Therefore, media representations of women should not be taken as the first and last word, for when gender so profoundly shapes our sense of our interests, these positions are ambiguous and suspect.

A. J. Brown,Griffith University, Brisbane
Do We Need State Constitutions, or Do We Need More? Research Ideas on the Political
Significance of Australian Regionalism for the 150th Anniversary

During the Centenary of Federation (2001), the author, Local Government Association of Queensland and Courier-Mail newspaper surveyed Queensland residents on the future development of the Australian federal system. Results were published in Public Law Review Vol. 13 and Australian Journal of Public Administration Vol. 61 (2002). The results showed that a majority of the Queensland population (62-63%) expect and look forward to change in the basic structure of the Australian federation over the next 100 years, with a substantial proportion (perhaps 40%) interested in more than minor change, including either major multiplication or complete replacement of the current States.

The pilot project demonstrated the feasibility of testing public attitudes on some vexing issues of Australian political debate, as well as providing initial quantification of the ongoing challenges facing State governments’ constitutional legitimacy in their present territorial form. At the same time, most States are approaching the 150th anniversary of their first 1850s Constitutions (commencing with Tasmania in 2004). This presentation of the 2001 survey results will inform colleagues about the methodology of the pilot and provoke critical debate about its significance, for the purposes of contributing to design of, and inviting participation in, national public attitude research on the same or similar issues in 2005.

Robyn Hollander,Griffith University
Who Sits in Parliament? An Analysis of State and Federal Members of Parliament

State Parliaments are smaller than their Federal counterpart. They can also be more conveniently located and more intimate in scale. Electorates are also smaller and this has implications for the task of getting elected and the job of constituency service. These factors should make state politics more approachable to a wider range of candidates and, as a consequence, we might expect to see a more diverse mix of members sitting in State Parliaments. This paper tests this expectation by analysing the personal characteristics of members of three State Parliaments. It looks at the gender, place of birth, age, educational qualifications and previous occupation of members of the NSW, Victorian and Queensland Lower Houses and compares them with the Federal House of Representatives. It finds that the majority of Federal and State Parliamentarians share common personal attributes and that the differences that do exist cannot be linked to the tier of government per se. Instead, these differences are more easily explained with reference to specific state or party characteristics or the consequence of large electoral swings.

Peter van Onselen, University of Western Australia
NSW Election - 22 March, 2003

The New South Wales election of March 22, 2003 presents an interesting study in modern Australian political campaigning. With the backdrop of war in Iraq, the incumbent Labor Government of Bob Carr went to the polls challenged by a 34 year old Leader of the Opposition, John Brogden. The Coalition was coming off a terrible set of results from the 1999 election. In contrast the ALP was popular, cashed up and running on a track record of sound economic management. The results saw the Coalition go backwards on two-party preferred calculations, unable to make any head way into the ALP’s huge lower house majority. This paper details the campaign, the policy issues and the aftermath of the Coalition defeat. When the results are analysed a number of interesting findings become apparent. The concept of state verse federal issues appears to be slowly eroding in the modern political context. Elections in Australia are becoming increasingly presidential, with respective leaders dominating the advertising campaigns. In the aftermath of the defeat, the Coalition has been surprisingly reticent to closely scrutinize why it performed so poorly. On the other side of the political spectrum the pecking order in the upper ranks of the Labor Party’s ministerial team are becoming increasingly apparent. Each of these issues will be examined, as will the results of the minor parties and independents. The NSW election of 2003 highlighted the growing irrelevance of state politics amongst voters in NSW, the benefits of incumbency, as well as the increasing usage of professionalised campaigning techniques by both major parties.

Shelly Savage, University of Sydney
Changing Guard Without Losing Step? The Politics of News Management in the Law and Order debate in New South Wales

A significant proportion of the existing literature on news and crime emphasizes the way that media escalate attention to issues, draw strong lines of deviance, increases moral polarization and create disproportionate perceptions about crime. Much of this large body of literature discusses the way in which media coverage adds to simplistic and draconian policy debates about issues relating to law and order.

The perception of law and order, especially given media coverage of crime, is a sensitive issue for any state government to manage. Much of the analytical literature concentrates on the labeling of deviance and the reinforcement of control perspectives. This assumes a unity of purpose and of imagery from the management perspective.

An interesting issue arises when there are conflicts within and between government and the bureaucracy in regard to public communication about crime. In the recent past, New South Wales has had three police ministers and two police commissioners. Each has had a very different publicity style from his predecessor. At certain times, although all are publicly united, there have been at least implicit criticisms of what went before. Is there a relationship between publicity and policy concerning issues of law and order?

This paper examines recent media coverage of law and order issues in New South Wales (NSW) with a view to discussing the different approaches to news management of crime reporting and, in turn, the influence of crime reporting on policy. Research methods employed to explain the interaction between publicity, the media, and the policy process include: depth interviews with journalists and government publicists; tracking the history of policy development; and reviewing media content. The paper discusses themes from a wider investigation for a doctoral research project that is examining the relationship between political communication, media and the policy process in New South Wales and, by abstraction, in liberal democracy.

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