S.M. BRUCE, IMPERIAL RELATIONS AND WAR FINANCE, 1939–1943

Abstract: This article deals with bargaining between Australia and the United Kingdom over some main aspects of wartime finance. Australian politicians and administrators took advantage of the wartime emergency to persuade the British to provide cheap loans with which the Australian government met its overseas military spending. The British Treasury also had to guarantee the preservation of Australia's sterling balances in the context of lend-lease arrangements between the UK and America. A number of bureaucracies, public and private institutions were involved, including the Australian High Commission, the Commonwealth Bank, the British Treasury, the Bank of England and the underwriting firm, Nivison & Co. It is argued that the wartime emergency enhanced the bargaining power of the Australians so that they were able to extract substantial concessions from the British.     

Tolerance and Intolerance, 1976–1998

Early students of political tolerance projected a rapid rise in levels of tolerance, but subsequent research has failed to offer conclusive evidence regarding whether tolerance has, in fact, increased. The General Social Survey (GSS) included the same 15 dichotomous tolerance items in the period 1976–1998, seemingly permitting assessment of trends in tolerance through examination of a standard 0–15 scale. Unfortunately, the validity of these data is uncertain because we cannot rule out the possibility that changes in affect toward the five GSS target groups, not true changes in tolerance, drive movement in the longitudinal series. To address this problem, we reexamine the GSS data from the perspective of past discussions of the meaning of tolerance and intolerance. We argue that that the GSS scale captures two aspects of tolerance: whether respondents are tolerant or intolerant; and, among the intolerant, the breadth and depth of their intolerance. We further argue that the first of these dimensions can be measured validly using the GSS data. Our analyses reveal that, at most, tolerance has increased only marginally in the period 1976–1998.     

Measuring Legislative Accomplishment, 1877–1994

Understanding the dynamics of lawmaking in the United States is at the center of the study of American politics. A fundamental obstacle to progress in this pursuit is the lack of measures of policy output, especially for the period prior to 1946. The lack of direct legislative accomplishment measures makes it difficult to assess the performance of our political system. We provide a new measure of legislative significance and accomplishment. Specifically, we demonstrate how item-response theory can be combined with a new dataset that contains every public statute enacted between 1877 and 1994 to estimate "legislative importance" across time. Although the resulting estimates and associated standard errors provide new opportunities for scholars interested in analyzing U.S. policymaking since 1877, the methodology we present is not restricted to Congress, the United States, or lawmaking .     

Centrelink – Viewed from the Community Sector

The government's introduction of a new service delivery agency, Centrelink, to deliver a range of programs including income support has been heralded as a major step forward in government service provision. Certainly no one would dispute that an improved level of service delivery can have major benefits for many low-income and disadvantaged people. However, it is becoming more apparent that there are tensions between the strong emphasis being placed on improving customer services and a social security system predicated on rights and entitlements under legislation. In a system where the former takes priority, the satisfaction of numerous customers with relatively uncomplicated situations may well be considered a more valuable outcome than the satisfaction of one person with a very complex situation that may require a high input of resources. When dealing with a 'service' such as income support – where people's access to assistance can make a fundamental difference to their ability to live decently – it is imperative that great care is taken before managerial and administrative models, such as a 'purchaser-provider split', are imported from other sectors. This article will explore these issues from the perspective of the community sector, particularly those who assist and advocate on behalf of low-income and disadvantaged people.