Article contents
State Government Convergence and Partisanship: A Long-Run Analysis of Australian Ministerial Portfolios
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2002
Extract
This study makes use of ministerial portfolios to analyze the scope of government activity. It shows that in comparison with expenditure and employment measures, portfolios have a number of advantages in terms of stability, absoluteness, and in identifying when new activities attract sustained government attention. Portfolios are used to investigate whether there has been any convergence in the scope of government activity across state governments in Australia over the century since 1890, and, also, whether partisanship has had any consistent impact on government activity. Neither hypothesis is confirmed. Rather, long-term patterns of activity are complex and appear to be driven by a wide range of forces.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , September 2002 , pp. 589 - 612
- Copyright
- © The Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique
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