PUBLIC POLICY AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS: TEACHER EDUCATION, 1960–1972*

Abstract: This is a case study of some aspects of teacher education policy formation in Australia. Between 1960 and 1972 the States sought to obtain from the national government specific purpose grant-aid for the training of their teachers, in addition to that already provided indirectly by grants to the States for their universities. The national government gave way, step-by-step, to this pressure, but “imposed” the broad condition of corporate “autonomy” for grant-aided tertiary educational institutions, instead of State departmental “control” of teacher training. The paper also considers what perspectives are suggested by this case study for the development of theories of public policy in the Australian federal system of government.     

CANADA'S INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS SPECIALISTS*

Abstract: Over the last decade the federal government and each of the ten provincial governments in Canada have put in place in their administrations significant numbers of intergovernmental relations specialists. These specialists are public servants up to departmental head level who work solely on intergovernmental business. They are located in separate departments or as separate units within central agencies, and are responsible for the coordination of relations with other governments and of intergovernmental activities within their own government. Coming at a time of increasing intergovernmental tension within the Canadian federation, these specialists have been subject to a great deal of criticism. The critics have charged that the specialists have exacerbated and even produced intergovernmental conflict. Lately, some scholars have come to their defence, emphasizing the positive functions that the specialists perform, and arguing that their influence has, in any case, been exaggerated. Australia has its own relatively small number of intergovernmental relations specialists at both the federal and state levels. And it is possible that in the future additional positions will be created. The variety of the Canadian experience means that there are a number of models from which each Australian government, of whatever size, can learn.     

POLITICS, PLANNING, AND CAPITALISM: NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLANNING IN FRANCE AND BRITAIN

Abstract. This study examines explanations for the success or failure of planning efforts of the 1945 British Labour Government and the French Government ofthe Fourth Republic. Most conventional views of British postwar planning depict it as hopelessly weak and disorganized while French planningisseen as reasonably well-armed and effectively organized. However, these views reflect excessive attention on purely administrative as well as political-cultural explanations and tend to ignore the critical underlying role of domestic politics and power. The French planning effort was only one element of a broader, relatively uncoordinated collaborative process. carried on among bureaucratic state elites and large industry, which effectively accelerated industrial investment and economic growth. Its success hinged on the inability of organized labour effectively to defend its wage interests within the political structure. In the British case, manipulation of capital markets was only marginally productive given the power and autonomy of the finance sector while the alternative attempt to plan through manpower direction failed due to the ability of organized labour to defend its wage interests in the face of chronic inflation. In each case. the structure of political power was most important in determining the success of the divergent technical approaches to planning.     

THE FEDERAL PRINCIPLE AND NATIONAL PLANNING

I am pleased to be able to speak today to this conference of the Royal Institute of Public Administration. Your conference comes at a time of renewed interest in federalism. In the past year or so there has been an upsurge of new studies and assessments of federalism in the universities and in the press. New life has been breathed into a subject which for so long has seemed dead in spirit, if not in die flesh.     

NATIONAL AND STATE COORDINATION OF AUSTRALIAN COLLEGES OF ADVANCED EDUCATION

Abstract: Until recently little work has been done on the government of post-secondary education in Australia. The development of the present arrangements for the coordination of post-secondary education is thus described and analysed, as are the structure and functions of the two national agencies and the various State bodies which have responsibility for coordination of colleges of advanced education. This analysis shows the growing size, complexity and costs of this sector of education, and the increasing involvement of the Commonwealth government in an area of traditional State responsibility. Yet there is still no single agency to coordinate the various activities of the Commonwealth government in higher education and only two States have such agencies. For the colleges of advanced education there are two national coordinating bodies, and at State level the arrangements vary markedly. There is also great variety in the relationships between individual colleges (which themselves differ greatly) and their State agencies, but overall there appears to be tension and dissatisfaction. In three ways could these relationships be improved: creating a greater degree of mutual recognition of rights and responsibilities; a revision of areas over which control is exercised; and a revision of the actual mechanics of coordination. Further, the assumption by the Commonwealth government of full financial responsibility for all tertiary education in January 1974 has added new sources of tension in the relationships between Federal and State governments and their agencies. The present pattern, however, is not static, but in a process of change.     

EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING POLICY IN A NEW ERA: THE IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL FORCES

Basic forces are influencing the American economy and significantly effecting employment and training policy. States need to take responsibility in solving the problems created by these trends. The implications of these trends-the technological revolution, internationalization of the American economy, and labor market and demographic changes-are examined. The first implication is that the United States cannot have effective economic policies unless monetary-fiscal policies are supplemented by selective labor market policies which can deal with specific labor market problems. Second, policies must be measured in terms of their effects on the competitiveness of American industry in the areas of wages, management systems, and technology. Finally, there is a need to recognize the importance of education in responding to the economy's problems and to combine employment and training with other human resource development activities.