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State Government Convergence and Partisanship: A Long-Run Analysis of Australian Ministerial Portfolios

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2002

Anthony M. Sayers  and
Jeremy Moon
Anthony M. Sayers
Affiliation:
University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
Jeremy Moon
Affiliation:
University of North London, Nottingham, UK
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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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