THE END OF THE EXPERIMENT - CORPORATISM COLLAPSES IN AUSTRALIA

The article argues that Australian corporatism was an inherently contr adictory formation, since it was dominated by economic liberal policie s, but with the appearance of trade union involvement in public policy . Since economic liberalism is, almost by definition, opposed to the i nterests of unions, such union involvement had to be misguided, or mor e apparent than real. The tensions between democratic corporatism and economic liberal policies, the latter unsuccessful in terms of industr ial adjustment, caused the 'corporatism' to become increasingly author itarian and exclusionary. This contributed to a loss of working-class support, shown in declining union density and the drift of working-cla ss votes to Labor's political opponents.