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Governance and the Future of Peak Bodies in Australia
Author(s) -
Cheverton Jeff
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.2005.tb00982.x
Subject(s) - legitimacy , corporate governance , accountability , project commissioning , ideology , government (linguistics) , publishing , public administration , political science , forcing (mathematics) , key (lock) , public relations , sociology , law , politics , economics , management , computer security , linguistics , philosophy , climatology , geology , computer science
This article reviews the literature on peak bodies in Australia, United States and Brittain. A key tension is identified between balancing the demands of government as funding body with accountability to the membership. The impact of neo‐liberal ideology is identified as constituting a threat to peak bodies by forcing amalgamations, focusing attention on government requirements, and undermining the legitimacy of peaks as truly representative of members' interests. It is argued that peak bodies will overcome this threat if they develop clear, transparent governance practices that demonstrate how members' views are identified and represented.