Diplomatic divergence in the antipodes: Globalisation, foreign policy and state identity in Australia and New Zealand

This article compares the constitutive relationship between foreign policy and globalisation in Australia and New Zealand. Drawing upon insights from constructivist international relations theory we argue that foreign policy instantiates a state's social identity, its self-understanding of its role and moral purpose by projecting a distinctive image onto the global stage. We explore the differences and the similarities between Australia and New Zealand by examining how each country views international order, global trade, global governance and human rights and international security. Although both countries appear to be transforming themselves into more 'globalised' states, there are significant differences in the way each seeks to balance the competing strategic and normative demands. This diplomatic divergence, we argue, stems from different conceptions of state identity.

Is corrections correcting? An examination of prisoner rehabilitation policy and practice in Queensland

This article provides an analysis of the policy and practice of prisoner rehabilitation in Queensland, and the extent to which they accord with international best practice. Actual practice was identified through interviews and written submissions from 20 ex-prisoners and 18 prisoner service providers (including two past staff members from Queensland prisons), as well as through an examination of reported judicial review decisions and Department of Corrective Services statistics. The results demonstrate that although the legislation and procedures suggest that a best practice system of prisoner rehabilitation exists in Queensland, there is a significant gulf between policy and practice. Far from being sufficiently prepared for release, Queensland prisoners are generally released directly from high security facilities into a community which they have great difficulty reintegrating into. The results suggest that the corrective services system in Queensland is not succeeding in fulfilling its primary purpose, 'correction', or in meeting its well-publicised goal of ensuring community safety.

No more free beer tomorrow? Economic policy and outcomes in Australia and New Zealand since 1984

There are no controlled experiments in macroeconomic policy, nor in systematic programs of microeconomic reform, but a comparison between New Zealand and Australia over the period since 1984 provides as close an approach to such an experiment as is ever likely to be possible. From quite similar starting points the two countries pursued liberal reform programs that differed sharply, mainly as a result of exogenous differences in constitutional structures and the personal styles of the central actors. Australia followed a more cautious, piecemeal, consensus-based approach, whereas New Zealand, in contrast, adopted a radical, rapid, 'purist' platform. The NZ reform package was generally seen by contemporary commentators as representing a 'textbook' model for best practice reform. However, Australia since 1984 has performed much better than New Zealand, whose per capita GDP growth indeed ranked at or near the bottom of the OECD. In this paper, we assess a variety of explanations for the divergences in policies and outcomes.

A survey of regular ecstasy users' knowledge and practices around determining pill content and purity: Implications for policy and practice.

Objective: To examine the methods used by a sample of regular ecstasy users to determine the content and purity of ecstasy pills, their knowledge of the limitations of available pill testing methods, and how pill test results would influence their drug use behaviour. Method: Data were collected from regular ecstasy users (n = 810) recruited from all eight capital cities of Australia. Data were analysed using multiple logistic regression and chi-square (chi(2)) tests of association. Open-ended responses were coded for themes. Results: The majority of the sample(84%) reported attempting to find out the content and purity of ecstasy at least some of the time, most commonly asking friends or dealers. Less than one quarter (22%) reported personal use of testing kits. There was a moderate level of awareness of the limitations of testing kits among those who reported having used them. Over half (57%) of those reporting personal use of testing kits reported that they would not take a pill if test results indicated that it contained ketamine and over three quarters (76%) reported that they would not take an "unknown" pill (producing no reaction in a reagent test). Finally, a considerable majority (63%) expressed interest in pill testing should it be more widely available. Conclusions: The majority of regular ecstasy users sampled in this Australian study report previous attempts to determine the content and purity of pills sold as ecstasy. Although only a small proportion have used testing kits, many report that they would do so if they were more widely available. The results of pill tests may influence drug use if they indicate that pills contain substances which ecstasy users do not want to ingest or are of unknown content. More detailed research examining ways in which pill testing may influence drug use is required to inform evidence-based policy. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Deregulation, competition policy and intra-professional contests in medical education

This paper investigates how government policy directions embracing deregulation and market liberalism, together with significant pre-existing tensions within the Australian medical profession, produced ground breaking change in the funding and delivery of medical education for general practitioners. From an initial view between and within the medical profession, and government, about the goal of improving the standards of general practice education and training, segments of the general practice community, particularly those located in rural and remote settings, displayed increasingly vocal concerns about the approach and solutions proffered by the predominantly urban-influenced Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP). The extent of dissatisfaction culminated in the establishment of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) in 1997 and the development of an alternative curriculum for general practice. This paper focuses on two decades of changes in general practice training and how competition policy acted as a justificatory mechanism for putting general practice education out to competitive tender against a background of significant intra-professional conflict. The government's interest in increasing efficiency and deregulating the 'closed shop' practices of professions, as expressed through national competition policy, ultimately exposed the existing antagonisms within the profession to public view and allowed the government some influence on the sacred cow of professional training. Government policy has acted as a mechanism of resolution for long standing grievances of the rural GPs and propelled professional training towards an open competition model. The findings have implications for future research looking at the unanticipated outcomes of competition and internal markets.

Essays on Development Policy and the Political Economy of Conflict

Electoral Rules and Leader Selection: Experimental Evidence from Ugandan Community Groups. Despite a large body of work documenting how electoral systems affect policy outcomes, less is known about their impact on leader selection. We study this by comparing two types of participatory decision making in Ugandan community groups: (i) vote by secret ballot and (ii) open discussion with consensus. Random assignment allows us to estimate the causal impact of the rules on leader types and social service delivery. Vote groups are found to elect leaders more similar to the average member while discussion group leaders are positively selected on socio-economic characteristics. Further, dropout rates are significantly higher in discussion groups, particularly for poorer members. After 3.5 years, vote groups are larger in size and their members save less and get smaller loans. We conclude that the secret ballot vote creates more inclusive groups while open discussion groups favor the already economically successful. Preparing for Genocide: Community Meetings in Rwanda. How do political elites prepare the civilian population for participation in violent conflict? We empirically investigate this question using data from the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Every Saturday before 1994, Rwandan villagers had to meet to work on community infrastructure. The practice was highly politicized and, according to anecdotal evidence, regularly used by the political elites for spreading propaganda in the years before the genocide. This paper presents the first quantitative evidence of this abuse of the community meetings. To establish causality, we exploit cross-sectional variation in meeting intensity induced by exogenous weather fluctuations. We find that an additional rainy Saturday resulted in a five percent lower civilian participation rate in genocide violence. Selection into Borrowing: Survey Evidence from Uganda. In this paper, I study how changes to the standard credit contract affect loan demand and selection into borrowing, using a representative sample of urban micro enterprises, most with no borrowing experience. Hypothetical loan demand questions are used to test whether firm owners respond to changes in loans' contractual terms and whether take-up varies by firms' risk type and other firm owner characteristics. The results indicate that contracts with lower interest rates and less stringent collateral requirements attract less risky borrowers, suggesting that there is scope for improvement of standard financial contract terms. Credit Contract Structure and Firm Growth: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial. We study the effects of credit contract structure on firm outcomes among small and medium sized firms. A randomized control trial was carried out to distinguish between some of the key constraints to efficient credit use connected to the firms' business environment and production function, namely (i) backloaded returns (ii) uncertain returns and (iii) indivisible fixed costs. Each firm was followed for the 1-year loan cycle. We describe the experiment and present preliminary results from the first 754 out of 2,340 firms to have completed the loan cycle. Firms offered a grace period have higher profits and higher household income than firms receiving a rebate later on as well as the control group. They also increased the number of paid employees  and reduced the number of unpaid employees, an effect also found among firms that received a cash subsidy at the beginning of the loan cycle. We discuss potential mechanisms behind these effects.

Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse: linguistics, educational policy and practice in the UK English/literacy classroom

In “The English Patient: English Grammar and teaching in the Twentieth Century”, Hudson and Walmsley (2005) contens that the decline of grammar in schools was linked to a similar decline in English universities, where no serious research or teaching on English grammar took place. This article argues that such a decline was due not only to a lack of research, but also because it suited educational policies of the time. It applies Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse (1990 & 1996) to the case study of the debate surrounding the introduction of a national curriculum in English in England in the late 1980s and the National Literacy Strategy in the 1990s, to demonstrate the links between academic theory and educational policy.