Between Market-Preserving Federalism and Intergovernmental Coordination: The Case of Australia

In: Swiss political science review: SPSR = Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft = Revue suisse de science politique, Band 12, Heft 3, S. 1-36

Abstract

This article investigates Australia's economic success since the 1990s. As this was set in motion by fundamental political reforms, it asks to what extent Australian-type federalism has been an important factor in the reform process. By using two approaches -- the market-preserving federalism approach of Weingast, which stresses the virtues of "limited government," decentralisation & competition together with the intergovernmental coordination approach of Scharpf which argues for a "problem-solving" orientation of territorial actors -- ,the structure of Australian federalism, changes in the working of the federal system in the 1990s, & effects on policy-making are scrutinised. The article demonstrates that a particular combination of a rather centralised federal structure & a particular type of intergovernmental coordination, i.e. collaboration, supplemented by the strong influence of new public management ideas, has been conducive to political reforms in Australia. This suggests that a decentralised & competitive version of federalism, as defended by Weingast, is not a necessary condition for embarking on a successful reform path in federal countries. In future research, both approaches or analytical dimensions should be used in order to better understand the relationship of intergovernmental relations & policy reforms. References. Adapted from the source document.