ABSTRACT

There has been no shortage of texts in New Zealand (or elsewhere, for that matter) reviewing and criticizing the ideology and policies of the New Right. For example, there are Bruce Jesson's (1989) Fragments of Labour, and a collection of essays edited by Brian Easton (1989b), The Making of Rogernomics with a detailed account by Hugh Oliver of economic policy formation within the Third Labour caucus. In these publications and others, there are examples of carefully argued and closely documented accounts on the development of Rogernomics: its ideological origins and past performance in economic policy terms; its critique of ‘big government’ and the Welfare State; and its strategies of deregulation and privatization. 1 In general, these critiques of New Right ideology have focused on political and economic evaluations. They have attempted to point out the dangers of a blind ideological commitment to the ‘free’ market, and, in a number of cases, sought to demonstrate the social consequences of this commitment for the traditional value of equality. One commentator (Easton, 1989b, p. 3) at a recent symposium, for example, identifies a capitalist libertarian American perspective dominating the Treasury's highly influential treatise, Government Management: Brief to the Incoming Government (1987), along with ‘contestability theory’ and principal agent analysis. While, in principle, each theory could be used for different political ends ‘in practice those who use the approach uncritically are almost always associated with new right analysis’. Easton (1989a, p. 5) demonstrates that the policy conclusions arrived at by the Treasury confirm the anti-government stance: the bizarre account of exchange rate policy; the infatuation with market exchanges; the dominance of ‘efficiency’ as an objective over ‘equity’ and ‘liberty’; and the conclusion which unequivocally favours private ownership over public ownership of enterprises, and recommends privatization. Perhaps, more importantly, he draws our attention to the New Right's attack on democracy.