Listener 23 April, 1994.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation;
Australian Michael Pusey triggered a national debate with his book Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation-Building State Changes Its Mind. In it the sociology professor at the University of New South Wales argues that senior federal public servants now favour the New Right approach called economic rationalism (Australian for Rogernomics) and have abandoned the values and objectives that traditionally dominated the public service. Although economic rationalism has been around for some time, the book caused a storm.
WHAKAPAPA: This is an April 1994 revision of an address to the Spring Lecture Series on Political Integrity, for the St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society, Thursday 4th of October, 1990. It contains material from a presentation to Forum North, a celebration of the Treaty of Waitangi, held at Whangarei, 10 November, 1990. The original address is available on Replay Radio, following its broadcast on National Radio, October 23, 1990. The almost full text of the original address was published in Socialist Politics 90/3,4, and an extract was published in The Dominion, 15 October,1990.)
Keywords: Governance; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Maori;
The moral authority of governance in New Zealand is based on a social contract, perhaps moreso than any other country. The “Social Contract” rests on the proposition that mankind is both an individual and a social animal. This creates a tension, for living in a society involves some alienation of one’s individuality. Yet to live outside society involves a loss of one’s full potential. There is no perfect solution to the tension, although many have been proffered.
