Paul Keating and leadership: was the 'personal' political?

Title: Paul Keating and leadership: was the 'personal' political?
Creator: Tate, John William
Relation: Australian Journal of Political Science Vol. 49, Issue 3, p. 439-454
Publisher Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2014.931344
Publisher: Routledge
Resource Type: journal article
Date: 2014
Description: This article proposes three possible reasons why political leaders abide by policy decisions in the face of vigorous opposition - because they perceive the policy to be 'right', because abiding by a decision is necessary to appear 'strong', or because of personal motives arising from the leader themselves. The article applies this framework to Paul Keating's apparent refusal, as Treasurer in 1989, to consider mortgage relief in the midst of prohibitively high interest rates arising from monetary policy at that time. The article concludes that it is the 'personal' dimension that most explains Keating's decision-making on this issue. This is a significant finding given that such personal motives are incapable of legitimation in liberal democratic terms, yet policy decisions arising from them can have an immense impact.
Subject: Australian Labor Party; Australian politics; economic policy; political leadership
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1302156
Identifier: uon:20424
Identifier: ISSN:1036-1146
Language: eng
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