Abstract

In this century Australia has enjoyed the highest per capita incomes and probably the most equal distribution of income of any nation in the world. Australia has been a lighthouse social democracy. We assess the impact of the vigorous liberal economic reforms of the 1980s on economic management and steering, social integration and cohesion, on the public sector, on civil society and the public sphere. We see that the reforms have been ideologically driven and that they have negatively affected the distribution of income, the deliberative capacity of the policy apparatus, and the unique institutional features of social democracy in Australia