Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Contemporary Theories of Australian Politics
- Part II Politics in Everyday Australian Life
- Part III Elections
- Part IV Participation and Representation
- Part V Inside the Australian State
- Introduction to Part V
- 19 Parliament
- 20 Prime ministerial government in Australia
- 21 Politicisation and the executive
- 22 Delivering public policy
- 23 The courts
- 24 Federalism
- Part VI Contemporary Public Controversies
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
22 - Delivering public policy
from Part V - Inside the Australian State
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables and figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Contemporary Theories of Australian Politics
- Part II Politics in Everyday Australian Life
- Part III Elections
- Part IV Participation and Representation
- Part V Inside the Australian State
- Introduction to Part V
- 19 Parliament
- 20 Prime ministerial government in Australia
- 21 Politicisation and the executive
- 22 Delivering public policy
- 23 The courts
- 24 Federalism
- Part VI Contemporary Public Controversies
- Glossary
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Difficulties associated with delivering public policy have long been a focus of investigation for institutionalists (Chapter 2). The extent to which promises made during elections campaigns can be delivered by the political party or parties that win office is of fundamental concern to those interested in the operation of democracy in Australia (Chapter 1). The fact that public servants can place their own ideas about how things ought to be done ahead of those of their ministers is important for behaviouralists (Chapter 3) and, in that it suggests that they are part of the social elite that monopolises resources at the expense of other Australians, abhorrent to critical theorists (Chapter 4). Discourse theorists and post-structuralists (Chapter 5) would seek to identify the discourses through which policy problems and their solutions are defined, while international politics theorists would examine the impact of the interplay between domestic and international forces on shaping policy delivery (Chapter 6).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Contemporary Politics in AustraliaTheories, Practices and Issues, pp. 249 - 259Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012