ABSTRACT
This chapter describes evaluates the historic shift in New Zealand politics from Keynesianism to neoliberalism and the Third Way. It addresses the question of state capacity through a brief engagement with theoretical interpretations of state autonomy. Much of the literature on policy change in New Zealand assumes, rather than convincingly demonstrates, that the state actually does have an autonomous capacity to formulate and implement policy, including those policies that shape the changing configuration of New Zealand's integration into the global order. Having clarified conceptually how one might investigate major changes in national and state autonomy, the chapter then seeks to clarify whether or not and, if so, then how and why the state fostered greater national autonomy from 1935 to 1984 and more fully integrated the New Zealand economy, society and polity into the global capitalist order from 1984 onwards.
