School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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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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ItemThe Premiership of Sir Albert Dunstan( 1960)Writers on Australian politics have constantly stressed the need for detailed research into the Country Party's role in its structure, and some have "tended to deplore the Labour Party's almost complete monopoly of such pursuits. Out of a profound sympathy for such sentiments, as well as a desire to unearth something original, I decided to direct my attention to this need. Apart from considerations of domicile, 'which leave little elbow room for an impecunious student, there were other pressing reasons for concentrating my efforts on Victoria. In New South Wales and Queensland, the Country Party has never enjoyed sufficient power in the legislature to form its own government, but has had to be content with participating jointly with other parties of an urban non-Labour stamp, and only during short breaks in long-established Labour ascendancies. In Victoria, however, the coin has fallen on the reverse side. There Labour has achieved power only for short unstable intervals as a minority Government, until 1952 when it commanded a majority over all other parties for the first time in its existence. In its place the responsibility of governing the State has been thrown from one non-Labour party to another, frequently too hot to hold in such an unstable climate. Since 1917 the Country Party has made its own peculiar contribution to this instability, by exerting an influence out of all proportion to its electoral strength. In 1935 this culminated in its seizure of office from the party with which it had shared it for two and a half years, and its enjoyment of an almost uninterrupted decade of office under the record-breaking premiership of Sir Albert Dunstan. Until 1943 he led a minority Government composed entirely of his own party members, deriving his support from a hapless Labour Party which gained little in the way of concessions. Even when the latter withdrew its support, the Country Party under Dunstan was able to continue in office with little loss of influence despite a small grant of portfolios to the Liberals. Such a sweep of political history, with such singular features, seemed at first sight to be too great a gift for a Melbourne research worker to overlook. (From Preface)