ABSTRACT
This chapter examines aspects of institutional changes in Australia and argues that strong commitment to public and private sector rationalizations and a consequent redefinition of individuals as little more than producers and consumers is an insufficient basis for democratic consolidation. Until the late 1970s Australian policy makers of all political persuasions held the view that social goals and personal values could be reconciled through the universal system of employment typical of advanced countries like Australia. Strategies to improve the position of aboriginal Australians, migrants, and other marginal groups were based on the view that they too could be brought into the workforce. Australia's predicament comes directly out of its inherited political economy. An economy more fully integrated into world markets would deliver growth and the arbitration and welfare systems would guarantee equitable distribution of the proceeds. In structural terms economists acknowledge that unemployment has less to do with cyclical movements than once they thought.
