Economics - Theses
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ItemThe evolution of Australian Treasury thought since 1945( 1982)This thesis aims to provide an understanding of the changing economic philosophy of the Australian Treasury, an institution of undoubted importance in influencing the nature of post-war economic policy but one which has been largely neglected by economic historians. As a corollary, the thesis aims also to make some (though of course a very limited) contribution to an even more significant gap in Australia's post-war economic history: an analysis of the contours of Australian economic thought in general. Recently, Fred Gruen has provided a survey of Australian economics from 1968 to 1978 and Geoff Harcourt has discussed the leading schools of economic thought in Australia - monetarist, bastard Keynesian, and post- Keynesian - and has related them to some key economic institutions, including the Treasury. Both of these are valuable contributions but are notably brief. Barry Hughes's Exit Full Employment is much more comprehensive and discusses Treasury thought in some detail but, as with Gruen and Harcourt, is concerned essentially with the 1970s. This thesis, by contrast, covers not only the 1970s but stretches back to the 1930s in an attempt to show how Treasury thought has evolved over more than four decades (with emphasis on the post-war period). To be more specific, the thesis is not a history of how the Treasury has influenced policy but aims to piece together the various elements of the Treasury's outlook - the way it views the economy and economic agents - to show how this view has changed over time, and to explain why it has changed. Given these aims, it seems essential to abandon a narrative style for an explicitly analytical and hermeneutical approach. For narrative would tend to obscure the extent and nature of the changes which have occurred in Treasury thought and obscure also the interrelatedness of the department's ideas. Liberal (but hopefully not excessive) use has been made of quotations. Such quotations are essential for giving flavour to the ideas discussed. More importantly, in an interpretative essay language is crucially important. Finally, some mention should be made of possible complaints concerning the style of the thesis. Perhaps the main complaint which could be raised is that the thesis is overly relativistic, in that it concentrates on tracing the evolution of Treasury thought and says little about the validity of the department's views. This is openly acknowledged. Nevertheless, before one can criticise (or support) the Treasury it seems essential to know something about what the department really thinks. It seems essential also to know why the Treasury thinks the way it does. In both these respects the thesis has some value. Hopefully, the thesis will convince the reader of an important fact: ideas about the world are not static but variable and assumptions made about human nature are of fundamental importance in determining one's view of the world and the economy. One has to be quite clear of these assumptions before one can engage in debate over which is more realistic.