Consensus and conflict among Australia's leaders

Bibliographic Data

ID10383100
AuthorsJohn Higley (Australian National University, corresponding author), Robert G Cushing (b N.I.A.S. , Netherlands)
Year1977
Volume12
Issue1
Pages38-58
Publication date1977-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3268 • E-ISSN: 1467-9256
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00323267708401583
OpenAlexW2042520838
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited9

This paper reports and analyses survey data on the opinions of 353 top position‐holders in business, trade unions, federal and state politics, the Commonwealth Public Service, mass media, national voluntary associations, and major universities and research institutes during the latter half of 1975. Patterns of elite responses to 15 issue sets aggregating 46 separate opinion items are examined. The main focus is on the extent and configuration of elite conflict and consensus over economic policy, foreign and defence policy, industrial relations, social issues, and institutional structure. In general, substantial conflict between left‐of‐centre and right‐of‐centre elites in all major issue areas, save possibly that of social issues, is found. However, the extent of this conflict varies as between specific policies, over which it is relatively small, and the legitimacy or desirability of various group actions and major policy innovations, over which it is quite large. Whether conflict during 1975 was sufficiently great to threaten the fundamental unity of Australian elites is discussed

Commonwealth · Economics · Elite · Foreign policy · Legitimacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Public opinion · Public relations · Sociology · State (computer science · Australian History and Society · Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism · Law · Public Administration

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