ABSTRACT
A new phase in Papua New Guinea politics began with the election of a national government in 1972. The promise of executive authority and decision-making by nationals for nationals was made to the nation as a whole and accepted by it. The promise was also made and largely accepted within the coffee industry. In terms of class interest, technocratic structures represent the worst of all possible worlds for both dominant and subordinate classes in the industry. The technocracy presents its handiwork of the stabilisation fund as a technical achievement in the best interests of society as a whole. The major structural change to the state in the post-colonial period is decentralisation. The third of the Eight Aims of 1972 aimed to put an emphasis on agricultural development in general and led in the coffee industry to a programme to regenerate coffee extension activity and to embark on a modest coffee expansion programme.
