Thirty wasted years: Australian social security development, 1950–80, in comparative perspective

1 May 1987

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in Politics

Vol. 22 (1) , 67-74
https://doi.org/10.1080/00323268708402015

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the reasons why Australia, in the postwar period of economic growth and social security expansion, so resolutely remained at the bottom of the international league table of welfare state development. Four possible explanations are located — programme inertia, economic resource growth, the age structure of the population and right‐wing political hegemony — and each is shown to have some impact on social security development. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the traditional dilemma for democratic socialist parties of combining reformist political goals with sufficient economic growth.

Keywords

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:

The origins of the Australian welfare state
Historical Studies, 1980
The Fiscal Crisis of the State
Published by Springer Nature ,1973