School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemJohn Cain and Victorian Labor 1917-1957( 1979)This thesis is partly a study of the Victorian Labor party's parliamentary performance, partly of the party's organizational wing, and to lesser extent it examines relations between the state Executive and the Trades Hall Council. This thesis is also the study of one man, John Cain, Victoria’s only really successful Labor leader. From an Irish, Catholic rural background, he joined the Victorian Socialist party and by 1917 won the state seat of Jika Jika (later Northcote). An earnest parliamentarian with good political and administrative skills, he fought his way to the Labor leadership by 1937 and was eventually Premier for three terms -1943. 1945-1947, and 1952-1955. He dies in 1957. (From synopsis)
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ItemE. G. Whitlam: an essay in political biography( 1979)Few of society’s members enter political life, and only a fraction of these become leaders. These are, then, uncommon men, and an understanding of their experience is not readily accessible to most of us. The politically interested may turn to political and historical biography to bridge the gap, yet the ad hoc and intuitive nature of most biographical work counts against its acceptance as a contribution to political science. This essay argues that for biography to be understood as integral to the discipline its methods must be such as to allow for comparison between studies of like and unlike political actors, and for generalization and prediction on the basis of a range of cases. A biography needs a systematic conceptual framework by which its subject can be understood, and whose principles are available to the reader for consideration (and potential refutation) in the course of analysis. Since it is impossible to retail the "complete" life, such a framework will suggest a means of selection from the mass of detail, facilitating the work of explanation. The logical theoretical tools for this can be found in modern theories of personality. The subject of this essay in biography is E. G. Whitlam, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. His unusual career, and the disparate accounts of the man to which it gave rise, epitomize our difficulty in coming to terms with leadership. Yet the enigma is more apparent than real, and a judicious interpretation of the life may dissolve the paradox and explain both functional and dysfunctional elements of character (evident in the antithetical strains in the career) as manifestations of a recognizable personality type. The groundwork of biography consists of isolating behavioural patterns which signify the idiosyncracies of personality. This essay proceeds first to establish the characteristics of behaviour across the whole life by scanning it chronologically. From this it turns to close consideration of the political career and in particular the style of work of its subject. It then attends to political orientations and philosophy before turning to the examination of language and habits of thought. The process is one of hewing ever closer to the inner man, passing from the activity of the public figure to the detail of working style, and at last to the uniquely individual operations of the mind. Patterns thus elicited are considered in the light of a number of theories of personality. This is an iterative process of devising successive approximations until the interpretation best suited to understanding Whitlam is established. As a means of testing and elaborating conclusions thus derived, the early life history is examined and the antecedents of adult personality sought. In the light of the interpretation established here, it is demonstrated that we can understand both the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and failures, of Whitlam as a political leader. Concluding remarks are devoted to what might be expected of other similar leaders. The attractions of such a leader for his followers, the circumstances in which such a pattern of leadership can be of political utility and cultural value, and the attendant dangers, are suggested.
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ItemSingle mothers in society: a study of the causes and consequences of single motherhood for a Melbourne sample of single mothers who kept their children( 1979)Inspiration for the Study: This study draws its inspiration from two main sources. Firstly, from the experience of a new organisation, the Council for the Single Mother and her Child, through which single mothers have come together in an attempt to help themselves and each other personally, practically and through social action to reform their socio-legal position in society. The increasing self-reliance of women and ameliorating social attitudes to single mothers have disclosed what seems to be a new type of single mother, barely glimpsed in earlier research. This mother may be more likely to remain in the community and keep her baby, and less likely to contact the traditional social service agencies. Such mothers have been visibly active in C.S.M.C. The council has encouraged research into the situation and experience of members so that, as an organisation, it can adapt better to serve its members as a grassroots, participatory, self-help welfare agency, and so it can fill out the picture it presents to the community. The council takes the view that any factual evidence presented is likely to improve the community’s understanding of a stigmatised group. In accord with this policy, C.S.M.C. has made this project possible by allowing the sample to be drawn from its mailing list. Secondly, it was designed to help meet a research need. Most of the research that is influential among Australian social workers is based on overseas evidence, often drawn from 'captive' samples of clients of maternity shelters, public hospitals and adoption or casework agencies, clients who are close to what, as Bernstein pointed out, is an emotional upheaval in any circumstances -- birth. From the perspective of knowledge building, it is desirable that the findings and hypotheses to emerge from this research should be re-examined and tested to see how relevant they may be for a contemporary local sample of single mothers living in the community with their children. Many expectant single mothers and the social workers who counsel them about plans for their own and their babies' futures, feel they have insufficient information about what happens to mothers later, since most of the mothers do not return to the social work agency unless they have problems. Dr. Nan Johns' follow-up study of samples of babies adopted, and babies kept by their natural mothers, is designed to meet this need. It is hoped that the present study will provide useful supplementary evidence. In Australia, there has been no large-scale, comprehensive research on the single-mother population, and in the absence of this, as Meredith and Brotherton have pointed out, there is a need for small-scale, particularised studies to develop a general body of data on the characteristics of single mothers. Other studies in this latter category have drawn their samples from welfare institutions that assist single mothers with problems, such as maternity homes, casework agencies or public hospitals, which cater mainly for low-income patients. The present survey concerns a more varied sample, and it is hoped it will therefore contribute a useful extension of existing research knowledge. (From Introduction)
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ItemThe Ryan case: an analysis of the decision of the Victorian Cabinet to impose the death sentence on Ronald Joseph Ryan, and of the public and mass media protest campaign( 1976)Between the years 1955 and 1972 Victorian politics was dominated not merely by the Liberal Party but by one man, Mr. (later Sir) Henry Bolte. Not since the (co-extensive) era of Sir Robert Menzies on the national scene had the political life of a community so completely been in the shadow of a single politician : as A.F. Davies has put it, for most people politics in Victoria for a long time had meant "Henry Bolte". But Sir Henry Bolte has not merely been the longest serving Premier in our history ; his coming to office in June 1955 marked the beginning of an era of continuity and stability in Victorian politics that had never before been experienced in the State. Before Bo1te came to power in 1955, there had been eighteen Governments since 1924, the longest-serving of which had been the Country Party Minority Government of A.A. Dunstan, which had ruled - with Labor support till July 1942 and thereafter with United Australia Party support - from April 1935 to September 1943. What is more, as A.F. Davies has pointed out, all the Ministries from 1924 to 1952 were either minority Governments or composite Ministries. Moreover, only two of the seven governments between 1924 and 1932 lasted a full parliamentary term, and only two of the twelve governments between 1943 and 1958. With the advent of the Bolte era "the inherent instability of Victorian Cabinets", as it had come to be termed, was at an end. While there has already been a searching political biography of Sir Henry, the politics and style of “the Bolte era" has so far not attracted extensive research. This thesis, then, is a contribution to our understanding of that era by concentrating on the most significant issue of the Bolte premiership : the decision by the Bolte Cabinet in December 1966 to hang convicted murderer Ronald Joseph Ryan. Only twice during his record term of more than seventeen years as Premier did Sir Henry Bolte meet with sustained, hostile public criticism and protest. Both occasions involved a decision to invoke the death penalty. The first involved the decision not to commute the death sentence on Robert Peter Tait for the murder of an elderly woman in Hawthorn in 1961. Following involved legal procedures by Tait's counsel, which culminated in a last minute intervention by the High Court to restrain the Government from proceeding with the hanging, the death sentence on Tait was finally commuted. (From Introduction)
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ItemWork, industry and control( 1978)This research project set out to explore in detail the work milieux of the skilled industrial worker, to examine work through the eyes and experience of the workman himself. Although an eclectic approach was employed in the gathering of the material for this thesis, the research was centred around two distinct methodological procedures: participant observation and in-depth interviewing. As a participant observer, I worked as a labourer in the Whyalla Shipyard which enabled me to experience work and its associated authority relationships first hand and to gain the trust of a group of employees who were later extensively interviewed. A semi-structured questionnaire was employed to enquire into worker’s leisure activities, social networks, financial position, personal background, class images, attitudes towards work and general social and political orientations. Endeavouring not to lose sight of the depth of the social processes implicit in the workman’s world of meaning, questioning procedures frequently approached the informality of ordinary conservations. My research revealed a disturbing lack of awareness, by unions, employers, government authorities and the courts, of the deleterious physical, sociological and psychological effects which accompany certain types of industrial employment. Working in close liaison with federal and state government instrumentalities, I was able to uncover significant discrepancies and inadequacies in the present industrial safety and workman’s compensation legislation. The Whyalla project, revealed an unexpectedly high incidence of work-associated physical disabilities and industrial diseased, and it is hoped that these findings will contribute to the review and general tightening-up of some of the South Australian statutes. ‘Work, industry and control’ demonstrates how industrial workmen can come to regard themselves to be trapped within a complex web of interlocking mechanisms of social and political control. Furthermore, it seeks to uncover some of the effects that elitist and authoritarian managerial policies and obsessive over-supervision can have on the morals, skills, and self-concept of craftsmen, and relates these to Lockwood’s concept of privatisation.
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ItemThe 'relative generosity' of the minimum wage component of wage increases granted at national wage cases: 1956-1976( 1977)A research project to determine whether the full bench of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission consistently bases its decision to award a minimum wage increase equal to, above or below the percentage increase in the consumer price index, on given economic and political factors.