This book is about the Australian difference. It is about how in economic and social policy Australia has diverged significantly from comparable countries. It confronts the defining contours of an ‘Australian exceptionalism’: the tight regulation of labour markets; a heavy reliance on income taxation and means testing; the endurance of a cadaverous federation and a pervasive bureaucracy; and a readiness to resort to compulsion in contexts ranging from saving to voting. What makes Australia so different? This volume brings together economists, historians and political scientists to canvass the explanation. In delving into the question, the book spans a wide range of issues: Australia’s simultaneously democratic and undemocratic tendencies; the poverty of her public debate amid a powerful media; the undertow of religion in a supposedly secular country; the unexpected role of her railways as a seedbed of political and administrative cultures; a puzzling laggardness in the development of her agricultural wealth; the regulation of Australian sport to benefit – not its players – but its management; as well as the original encounter between European and Aboriginal societies. This book suggests that the ‘special path’ that Australia has followed for over a century is the product physical circumstances, historical accidents, fateful choices, and the unique personalities thrown up by a strange land.

"Almost all the chapters of this book had their genesis in a one-day conference, 'The Austalian Sonderweg: Between Choice, Chance and Destiny', held in 2014 on the Fremantle Campus of the University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA)"--Acknowledgements.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

CONTENTS

1.The Australian exception / William O. Coleman p1. 1.1 The question. 1.2 Questioning the question. 1.3 Planet Australia. 1.4 The Australian Movement.

2.Australian exceptionalism: a personal view / Geoffrey Blainey p17. 2.1: Worlds apart: nomads and the industrial revolution. 2.2 Making peace: Australia and New Zealand. 2.3 Australia: an early showplace of mass prosperity. 2.4 Australian gold glitters across the seas. 2.5 Wool and gold: two commodities that wed. 2.6 From despotism to democracy: a swift transition. 2.7 How a populist democracy flavoured economic life. 2.8 After the panic. 2.9 Where would socialism first sprout? Australasia or Russia? 2.10 Immigration: an exceptional history. 2.11 The compass needle swings from Britain to Asia. 2.12 The balance sheet.

3.Theories of Australian exceptionalism / William O. Coleman p34. 3.1 Status and station. 3.2 Fraternity. 3.2.1 Russel Ward. 3.2.2 Louis Hartz. 3.3 Autonomy and W.K. Hancock. 3.4 Societal technology and A.F. Davies. 3.4.1 Colonial origins. 3.4.2 Authoritarianism. 3.4.3 Legal constructivism. 3.5 Disharmony in the spheres. 3.6 The underlying causes. 3.7 The inertial society. 3.8 The law and the word.

4.Utilitarianism contra sectarianism: the official and the unauthorized civic religion of Australia / Greg Melleuish and Stephen A. Chavura p62. 4.1 The myth of Australia as secular. 4.2 Religion in Australia. 4.3 Australia and the secular. 4.4 Religion, the state and education. 4.5 Being Protestant, being British. 4.6 The end of Protestant Australia.

5.Tocqueville, Hancock, and the sense of history / Henry Ergas p81. 5.1 Lives and settings. 5.2 The new regime. 5.3 Democracy in Australia. 5.4 The points of contrast. 5.5 Democracy under God. 5.6 The contrasting fates.

6.Australia's `talent for bureaucracy' and the atrophy of federalism / J.R. Nethercote p107. 6.1 Federalist in spite of itself. 6.2 Federalisme sans doctrines. 6.3 The talent for bureaucracy. 6.4 Adjectival federalism. 6.5 Federation as a bureaucracy: reform of the federation green paper (2015). 6.6 Retrieving federalism from bureaucracy.

7.Australia's industrial relations singularity / Phil Lewis p119. 7.1 Origins. 7.2 The system crashes. 7.3 The first attempt at change: Hawke and Keating. 7.4 A renewed attempt at change: the Howard / Reith reforms. 7.5 The Rudd reset. 7.6 The effects of labour market regulation. 7.7 How do other countries do things? 7.7.1 United Kingdom. 7.7.2 New Zealand. 7.7.3 USA. 7.7.4 Japan. 7.7.5 France. 7.8 The impact of minimum wages and penalty rates: the balance sheet. 7.9 Conclusion.

8.Australia's electoral idiosyncrasies / William O. Coleman p143. 8.1 The secret ballot. 8.2 Proportional representation. 8.3 Preferential voting. 8.4 Compulsory voting. 8.5 The National Party. 8.6 The Australian Electoral Commission. 8.7 The myth of democracy.

9.Socialism in six colonies: The aftermath [state-owned railways] / Jonathan Pincus p166. 9.1 Sowing. 9.1.1 Why government ownership? 9.1.2 The significance of loan markets. 9.1.3 The state as ‘one big company’. 9.2 Reaping. 9.2.1 Railway finances. 9.2.2 Competition policy. 9.2.3 Spread of government ownership. 9.2.4 Politics and unions. 9.2.5 Railway commissions. 9.2.6 Political economy. 9.2.7 Decline in patronage. 9.2.8 Rule by experts. 9.3 The reckoning. 9.3.1 Evaluation. 9.4 Conclusion.

10.We must all be capitalists now: the strange story of compulsory superannuation in Australia / Adam Creighton p188. 10.1 The ‘pillars’ of Australia’s retirement-income system. 10.2 The history and political economy of ‘super’. 10.3 Australia’s super system today. 10.3.1 Accounts. 10.3.2 Taxation. 10.3.3 Investment risk. 10.4 A costly remedy for a manufactured problem. 10.4.1 Misguided savings. 10.4.2 Excessive overheads. 10.4.3 Insufficient saving. 10.5 The current outlook. 10.6 Conclusion.

11.Australia's economic mores through the lens of the professional sports industry: individual rights or state paternalism? / Richard Pomfret p109. 11.1 Historical background. 11.2 Sport labour markets. 11.3 Government subsidies for professional team sports. 11.4 Australia in the global sporting economy. 11.5 Conclusions.

12.The industrialist, the solicitor, and Mr Justice Higgins: some biographical insights into the Harvester Case of 1907 / Peter Yule p228. 12.1 Three Irish families [Higgins, McKay, Shaw family]. 12.2 The judgement. 12.3 The context. 12.4 The aftermath.

13.Barons versus bureaucrats: the history of the grain trade in North America and Australia / Nick Cater p244. 13.1 ‘Bread enough to spare’. 13.2 Inventing a grain market. 13.3 ‘A buckler to defend villainy’? 13.4 The barons. 13.5 Elevator tycoons. 13.6 Why were there no grain elevators in Australia? 13.7 Arrested development. 13.8 The past and the present.

14.Australia's distinctive governance: Westminster, Ottawa, and Canberra Contrasted / J.R. Nethercote p266. 14.1 The development and alteration of constitutions. 14.2 The Governor-General and the Monarch. 14.3 The Federal Executive Council and the Privy Councils. 14.4 The Cabinet. 14.5 Houses and Senates. 14.6 The public service and the civil service. 14.7 Conclusion.

15.Australia and New Zealand: parallel and divergent paths / Keith Rankin p289. 15.1 Exceptional Anglo-Western expansion. 15.2 Geography as politics before Australian federation. 15.3 The Presbyterian connection. 15.4 Dominions of debt. 15.5 Political economy before the Second World War. 15.6 Post-Second World War political economy. 15.7 Parallel though not always together. 15.8 Reflection.

Bibliographies at end of each chapter. Index p311.