ABSTRACT
Australia's participation in the processes of globalisation has some contradictory features. On the one hand, the nation's semi-peripheral status is reflected in its developed but dependent economic character. It is – indeed, has been for two centuries – closely integrated with other major capitalist nations, with particularly strong dependence on international investment and finance. Its overseas trade relationships have had a major influence on economic structure and public policy, prioritising the agricultural and mining sectors in particular. The nation has a distinctive position in the international division of labour and the production relationships shaped by multinational capital. On the other hand, Australia's location, political structures and social traditions provide some possibility of a more independent political economic trajectory. Its labour movement, its experience of effective regulatory institutions, some elements of a tradition of social egalitarianism and a growing ‘green’ consciousness create opportunities for alternative policy responses that could challenge, to some extent, the dominant influence of neoliberal globalism.
