School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemThe new politics of old ideas: A comparative study of welfare state reform in Sweden and the United States( 2017)This study seeks to explain why governments engage in welfare state reform, despite apparent risks, and why they sometimes do so contrary to policy regime type. In so doing, it advances our understanding of the role played by ideas in welfare reform. The study argues that persistent policy problems, described as functional pressure, provide opportunities for ideationally motivated leaders to engage in reform. This pressure allows for the return of previously dormant, non- viable or unsuccessful ideas as alternatives to the status quo. Drawing upon literature on institutions, policy change and decision theory, a distinctive account of reform is developed and then tested through the close analysis of four case studies, from two distinctive welfare systems: Sweden and the United States. In health care, it compares the development of the US Affordable Care Act (popularly known as “Obamacare”), with Sweden’s 2009 vårdval (patient choice) reform in primary care. For pensions, the cases are Sweden’s replacement of its national pension scheme, completed in 1998 and the similar, but failed effort to partly privatise Social Security, led by President Bush in 2005. Ideas are found to play important roles in delegitimising the status quo and providing persuasive links between problem and solution, especially under conditions of uncertainty. However, the causal effects of ideas are mediated by material and perceived institutional and policy constraints. These constraints necessitate bricolage, the piecing together and reframing of existing solutions to fit the political and policy circumstances, as well as learning from previous failures. The analysis of the case studies suggests that in the long-term, innovation through bricolage may spur unexpected bouts of reform. The study therefore challenges the dominant view of the welfare state as highly change resistant. It appears that policy problems will continue to provide opportunities for reform-minded actors to implement long-held ideas, especially if they are able to engage successfully in strategic learning. Although developed welfare states are unlikely to move radically away from established regime types in one fell swoop, this study makes clear that there is significant room for continued evolution and hybridisation, even in “exceptional” welfare states.
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ItemExamining the link between democracy and inclusive economic growth in Southeast Asia( 2017)Embedded in all our assumptions and hopes for democracy is the belief that a democratic system will make life better, economically and socially, for its citizens. Given this almost universal assumption it is surprising how little we really know about the impact of democratisation upon the welfare of citizens and the variables linking the two. This thesis investigates the impact of democracy on Inclusive Economic Growth, and mainly questioning: “Does democracy matter in the delivery of larger and more effective social policies that improve inclusive economic growth? ”The four cases selected to empirically analyse the relationship among the three variables (democracy, social policy, and inclusive economic growth) are Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The finding is social policy is one of the potential variables linking the two; especially when the development of democratic institution run stably and the vast majority of the people support it. In other words, social policy becomes an important variable to test the link between democracy and inclusive economic growth.
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ItemUnderstanding Port Melbourne: accounting for, and interrupting, social order in an Australian suburb( 2016)Any account of a place or people relies on the imposition of order. I present an ethnographic account of Port Melbourne configured in three parts, using the work of Jacques Rancière. First, the material and social geography demonstrate that spatial orders are always underpinned by social order. Second, stories and characters from the suburb reveal such order to only ever be imposed, not inherent. Third, the imposition of order, even when underpinned by the most principled policy commitments, imposes inequality.
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ItemChristian mission or an unholy alliance?: The changing role of church-related organisations in welfare-to-work service delivery( 2016)This thesis investigates the challenges confronting religious organisations contracted to deliver employment services as part of Australia’s privatised employment services system. Service privatisation, which commenced in Australia in 1998, was expected to generate value for money, efficiency, and innovation and in turn improve outcomes for the unemployed. What began as a radical experiment has become institutionalised and work practices in employment services agencies are standardised across the range of contracted organisations. Critics argue that service delivery agencies are becoming increasingly homogenised, meaning that distinctive differences between for-profit, not-for-profit and church-related organisations are increasingly difficult to identify. This homogenisation is consistent with the phenomenon of isomorphism resulting from coercive, mimetic and normative influences. These influences have particular consequences for church-related organisations. Neo-secularisation theorists posit that isomorphic pressures have the potential to erode links between church-related organisations and the parent denomination and exacerbate the decline of religious authority, described as internal secularisation (Chaves, 1993a). The study of religious organisations is often seen as peripheral in social science, yet in this thesis I present original findings from a case study comprising four church-related organisations contracted to deliver federally funded employment services. This includes an examination of the extent to which the contracting environment impacts the behaviour, mission and identity of these church-related organisations. Central to this is the way in which the relationship between the purchaser and the contracted organisations has evolved since these services were first privatised. Principal-agent theory provides key insights into the behaviour of the purchaser and the impact that the principal-agent model of contracting has on the behaviour of the key actors. I find that with almost no exceptions, on almost every measure of religiosity, from ‘going the extra mile’ to the use of religious symbols, church-related welfare organisations are indistinguishable from their secular counterparts. I conclude that this is due to the types of pressures inherent in quasi-markets and in particular the purchaser’s use of the principal-agent model of contracting. I conclude that the church-related organisations in this study have been captured by the new public management agenda and this has compromised their ability to deliver their unique mission and resulted in identity drift. While one church-related organisation has been able to counter the effect of mission drift to some extent by focusing on delivering specific services for their unique client group, being disadvantaged young people; there is nonetheless pressure on all organisations operating in this field to conform to the rules, norms and agenda set by the purchaser. Church-related organisations in this environment are compelled to achieve the agenda of government rather than the agenda of the church. Therein lies the potential conflict. Finally, I surmise that this phenomenon may suit governments as the purchaser of social welfare in the short term; but it may have the long-term effect of diminishing the very values that make church-related agencies church-like. This may eventually accelerate secularisation and also undermine the amount of charitable good being exercised in society.
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ItemGovernance and uncertainty: the public policy of Australia's official development assistance to Papua New Guinea( 2002)Against the backdrop of the historical failure of official development assistance to alleviate poverty in the Third World, this thesis examines the current approach of Western aid donors toward development. The thesis asks whether aid policy processes indicate a willingness, or capacity, on the part of official donors to more fully engage with the causal complexity of development, and so potentially improve development outcomes. Considering the case study of the Australian bilateral aid program to Papua New Guinea from both top-down and bottom-up policy perspectives, the thesis concludes that, in relation to Australia, there are significant structural and institutional impediments to change. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and its interpretation of national interest, dominate high-level aid policy-making, even though the objectives of foreign policy and those of foreign aid differ. Australia's official development agency, AusAID, is limited in its capacity to legitimately challenge this dominance, not least because its use of contracted-out projects restrict its corporate knowledge and its ability to influence policy agendas and networks. Overcoming this impasse requires creative management on the part of senior public servants and non-governmental members of the aid policy community alike.
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ItemOverseeing and overlooking: Australian engagement with the Pacific islands 1988-2007( 2012)This thesis aims to explain the discrepancy between Australia’s stable interests and objectives in the Pacific islands and the volatility of its approach to achieving those objectives. The thesis proposes a cyclic model of Australian engagement that it illustrates using a historical narrative of Australia’s relationship with the Pacific islands. The key finding is that weak institutionalisation renders Australian engagement dependent on the foreign minister and susceptible to influence by advocates who capture the minister’s attention.