ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some conflicting ideas about how governments ought to develop policy. It argues that ideas about policy processes are affected by the ways in which governments view the role of the state, the role of the market, how they govern, and the rights and obligations of citizens. The chapter also argues that public administration in Australia was shaped from the 1970s by ideas about a democratic state which emphasised bottom-up participation, from the 1980s by ideas about a managerial state which emphasised rationality and control, and in the 1990s by the idea of a contract state which emphasises market solutions. Democratic-participative ideas about public administration lead to particular ideas about how policy should be developed. Community services sectors have been marked since the 1970s by consultative and participative policy processes, particularly in some states. The dominant rationale underlying managerialism is economic, including the assumption that efficiency should be the primary organisational goal.
