The Politics of Economic Adjustment: Explaining the Transformation of Industry-State Relations in Australia

Recent theories of the state (pluralism, statism, Marxism and corporatism) are evaluated in terms of their capacity to explain an historic transformation in industry-state relationships in Australia over the last two decades. The explanatory tasks focus on explaining the shift from high protectionism to free trade for manufacturing industry, coupled with an increase in positive industry assistance measures. The paper argues that a suitably tailored Marxist account avoids most of the limitations of the other theories examined. Yet it is stressed that Marxism's strength lies not in explaining policy details but in providing a broad macro-structural theory of the state in capitalist societies. Marxism's explanatory ‘superstructure’, needs to be filled in at the meso-level by other explanatory elements so that the contours and dynamics of policy making below the macro-structural level can be more fully explained. Concepts such as accumulation strategy, political coalitions and policy networks are suggested for this purpose.