Confusion : the making of the Australian two-party system / editors, Paul Strangio, Nick Dyrenfurth.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Strangio, Paul.

Dyrenfurth, Nick.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Australian Labor Party--History.

Australian Labor Party.

Liberal Party of Australia--History.

Liberal Party of Australia.

Political parties--Australia--History.

Political parties.

Australia--Politics and government.

Australia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Melbourne: MUP Academic Digital, 2009.

Summary:

In Confusion, some of Australia's foremost political historians including Judith Brett and Stuart Macintyre revisit the seminal moment when liberals threw in their lot with the conservatives. In May 1909, Alfred Deakin, the radical liberal doyen, struck an agreement for a controversial 'fusion' with the anti-Labor factions, with the new grouping later adopting the name 'Liberal Party'. After a heated campaign, Labor won the 1910 election, forming the first majority government in the history of the Commonwealth. The Australian party system—as we still largely know it one hundred years on—had crystallised. How had this occurred? For most of the previous decade Labor and Deakin had been allies. Was the anti-Labor alliance the inevitable outcome of middle-class men rallying against the growing electoral might of the workers' party? What were the long-term consequences for both sides of politics? With Labor in power federally and in all but one state, the non-Labor side of politics has been plunged into a period of introspection about its coalition arrangements, and about the legitimate traditions of Australian liberalism. Can the current Liberals learn from the events of a century ago?

Contents:

Cover; Title; Contents; Contributors; Introduction; Part I: Parties; 1 'the fortunes of my own little band':; 2 'for the sake of a straight out fight':; 3 'Vote down the conspiracy':; Part II: Other Perspectives; 4 'so manifestly unreal and irrelevant':; 5 'an intensity of feeling such as I had never before witnessed':; 6 'politics among the people':; 7 'My heart bleeds':; Part III: Legacies; 8 Whatever Happened to Deakinite Liberalism?; 9 Whatever Happened to Free Trade Liberalism?; 10 'from a purely working class standpoint':; Index; Copyright

ISBN:

9780522860030

0522860036

OCLC:

1493614613